Teachers' recruitment must be improved, says IPPR
Monday, 05 May 2008 00:01
IPPR says schools' recruitment policies must improve
Changes to schools' recruitment policies must be made in order to ensure pupils perform to their best ability, a leading research body has warned.
New research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has found that the difference between an 'excellent' teacher and a 'bad' teacher can mean the difference between achieving a pass and a fail in GCSEs.
And to improve teaching standards across the country, new recruitment criteria - such as using ex-head teachers to train new staff and appointing bursars to allow heads more time for staff management - should be introduced, the report's authors have recommended.
Using data commissioned from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO), IPPR researchers found that being taught by an 'excellent' rather than a 'bad' teacher could mean an increase of one GSCE grade per pupil per subject.
Even the difference between a 'good' and 'bad' teacher was tangible, with a 0.6 per cent increase per GCSE.
In response to the findings, the IPPR report, entitled Those Who Can?, recommends introducing a nationally-set written exam for teaching applicants, the use of psychometric testing and requiring teachers to observe four lessons by colleagues per term to improve performance.
Recruitment of professional experts from non-teaching sectors should increase while a top tier of managers, made up of retired or soon-to-retired head teachers, should be installed to create a better support system for current heads of school.
Julia Margo, IPPR associate director and the report's lead author, said that despite rising applications for teaching positions, "there are still a large number of ineffective teachers and they make the difference between children passing and failing".
"Improving the recruitment and professional development of teachers would enable schools to improve or replace poor performing teachers," she added.
"There is also a concern that many older teachers are due to retire in the next decade. The proposed scheme to introduce a new management tier would address this and keep expertise in the system."