Teacher and Leader Effectiveness in High-Performing Education Systems

This report—published by the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education—provides a set of case studies that examines best practices for cultivating teacher and leader effectiveness from around the globe, honing in on Finland; Ontario, Canada; and Singapore. The areas featured in this report have well-developed and effective systems in place for recruiting, preparing, developing, and retaining teachers and school leaders. Furthermore, they are among the highest performing jurisdictions in international tests of student performance, and their results rank among the most equitable in the world. The report highlights the following key findings: (1) It takes an entire system, not just one policy, to develop teachers and leaders; (2) Getting the right people into the profession from the start is critical; (3) Making teaching an attractive profession builds a strong workforce; and (4) Investing in continuous learning and proactively recruiting and developing high-quality leadership are crucial to building a strong education system.