Australia's systems of teacher appraisal

Today I am going to summary the feature article, published on The Age newspaper in April, 18th on "Push for teacher testing changes".

The recent survey of lower-secondary teachers conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found the old system of teacher appraisal had a little impact on teachers' methods. More than 90 percent of Australian teachers believe that the most effective teachers did not receive the greatest recognition and teachers with sustained poor performance are still working.

Grattan Institute recently has released a report of new changes on Australia's systems of teacher appraisal and claims that the changes would increase teacher effectiveness by 20-30 per cent and as a result it will boost economic growth by about 0.4 per cent a year.

The report examines eight methods of assessing teaching quality, including student test scores, peer observation and student surveys. It suggests schools should use student test scores and three other methods to produce a "balanced scorecard" of a teacher performance. It also argues for a decentralised approach with individuals schools given the power to define effective teaching and how it should be measured. Using this approach, schools would need to be given greater autonomy over teach pay to reward the most effective teachers, says Dr. Jensen.


Finally, Australian Education Union federal president acknowledged the report that professional development was bureaucratic and managerial was counterproductive. In my view, Australia should be positive about the new strategy and awaits to see promising results in the education system in the future.