62249 Supervision of Primary and Secondary Education: A Five-Country Comparison Key Messages Bank’s assistance in exploring ways to improve teaching quality and educational outcomes through At the request of the Government of improved systems of supervision and support to Poland which is reforming its schools. The World Bank therefore prepared a review1 educational system, the World Bank examining how five countries - England, Finland, the conducted a review of how five high- Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea performing countries in the education - organize the supervision and support of schools and sector provide supervision and teachers at the primary and secondary levels. support to their schools. School Supervision Systems in Five Countries England, Finland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the Republic of The five countries included in the review - England, Korea approach supervision and Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Republic of support to schools and teachers in a Korea - were selected according to the following criteria: variety of ways; there is no single right way and their decisions take Countries that have excellent educational into account the overall organization outcomes, as evident in high rankings on of their education systems. international benchmark tests such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and The Trends in International A common theme to school supervision in all five countries is that Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)*. schools are required to perform self Diversity in geographic location and approach assessments. The criteria for to supervision. supervision extend beyond issues of Countries where there is considerable to regulatory compliance into questions moderate geographic spread of schools under about the quality of school processes, supervision. context and outcomes for students. Defining “supervision” All systems include elements of both accountability and support. The review distinguishes between supervision, inspection, evaluation, and support; it defines supervision as: “the Introduction regular/periodic oversight of individuals or entities, which uses the results of evaluation (and sometimes inspection) to inform and direct action of those supervised.” It is perfectly As countries work towards improving their educational outcomes, systems of supervision and support to 1 Hovde, Kate. “Supervision and Support of Primary and Secondary Education: A Policy schools are frequent areas of reform. In 2009, Poland’s Note for the Government of Poland.” World Bank, May 19, 2010. The Knowledge Brief is Ministry of Education (MoE) requested the World based on this review. ECA Knowledge Brief possible that a single individual or entity may provide experimenting with a teacher evaluation system for the past several functions at the same time and also that the name of few years. Institutions charged with the supervision of the entity (for example, Inspectorate) may not reflect other schools include the Education Review Office (ERO) and important aspects of its work and mission. Supervision, school boards in New Zealand; a national Inspectorate, according to this definition, has some overlap with municipalities and local school boards in the Netherlands; evaluation and inspection, and often also with support, at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) least in the form of advice. in Korea; municipalities in Finland, and; the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills Who supervises and who/what is supervised? (OFSTED), local authorities and local school boards in England. Students, Teachers and Principals: In all five countries, students are supervised by their teachers and the teachers What are the criteria and focus for supervision of are primarily supervised by the school principals/head schools? teachers. In some systems and schools, teachers (particularly new teachers) may also be supervised by Although the emphasis is slightly different depending on experienced teachers or mentors for a period of time. The each country, supervision at the school level mostly use of induction programs and mentoring periods has gained includes consideration of three main aspects: student prominence over the last decade as one avenue for outcomes, school processes, and the context in which the improving teacher quality and retention. Of the five schools are operating. While regulatory compliance issues countries included in this review, three have instituted new are usually considered in the context of school management teacher mentoring and induction guidelines or programs; in and financial stewardship, external supervision in most Finland, the existence of such programs varies according to high-performing school systems goes well beyond the municipalities. In Korea, mentoring and induction compliance - considerable emphasis is placed on looking at periods are not required in public schools but private student outcomes, the quality of teaching and school schools, which make up over 30 percent of the total number leadership, student needs, and the schools’ abilities to of schools in the country, often have them. The supervision diagnose and address their own strengths and weaknesses. and evaluation of school principals is usually the Guidelines as to what should be considered as part of both responsibility of different entities in different school school self-assessment and external supervision are explicit systems and countries, often depending on the overall and mandatory in England, New Zealand, and Korea. In the organization of the education systems (see Figure 1). Netherlands, guidelines for school self-assessment are Schools: In four of the countries examined, schools, rather provided but are not mandatory. In Finland, there are no than teachers and principals, are the primary focus of formal guidelines beyond the requirement that schools external supervision. While the supervision of schools may produce annual self-assessment reports and municipalities include drawing conclusions regarding teaching quality, perform annual school evaluations. external supervision, for the most part, does not include detailed reviews of individual teacher quality/performance. A notable exception to this rule is Korea which has been Figure 1: Agencies Involved in Supervision of Schools Source: A. Paglayan; additional interviews, Eurybase reports. ECA Knowledge Brief How does information flow in an effective supervision What are the stakes or consequences of supervision? system? For teachers, poor performance during an induction For supervision systems to be effective, schools must program or period may lead to dismissal or delay in receive useful, actionable feedback on their performance. In granting of permanent job status, although this is more many education systems worldwide, schools are required to common in higher accountability systems such as England’s submit reams of information on which they receive virtually or New Zealand’s. Once granted permanent status, no feedback; this is not the case in high performing systems. dismissal of teachers is uncommon across all systems. With A number of reform efforts in the five countries profiled regard to consequences for schools, there is considerable have focused on improving school-level access to, variance among the countries examined. In all cases, organization, and use of data, particularly student external supervision produces actionable information about assessment and outcome information. In both England and a school’s strengths and weaknesses. In Finland, schools the Netherlands, external supervision reports also include and municipalities then use this information to seek help as the contextualization of student outcome results, so that needed. The approach is similar in Korea, with the addition schools can see how they are faring among their peers or of some performance rewards. In contrast, there are other schools with similar characteristics. This information sanctions attached to schools being identified as under- can only be produced at a system level but often provides performing in England, the Netherlands and New Zealand, useful feedback at the individual school level. including, occasionally, school closure (see Figure 2). What are the types and sources of support for teachers, In most systems, some school level information, such as principals and schools? student report cards, is provided to parents. Where parents and the public have a more active role in school In all five systems, support for teachers may target governance, information may flow both ways. In some instruction directly (for example, providing access to systems - like those in the Netherlands, England and New internal or external instructional coaches) or may focus on Zealand - not only is information regarding parental and improving the learning environment (for example, community relations a focus for external supervision, but providing additional physical and instructional resources, parents and the public have full and easy access to the better coordination with social services for children’s non- external assessments themselves; there is a culture of instructional needs, re-arrangement of school schedules to parents relying on such assessments in making choices allow teachers more time to work together, and/or about schooling options. investment in formative assessment programs that enable teachers to better track individual student learning, etc.). Figure 2: Consequences of Supervision Sanctions (England, Information/school Incentives/Rewards The Netherlands, level action (Finland) (Republic of Korea) New Zealand) Source: Eurybase profiles, interviews. ECA Knowledge Brief The types of support for principals and schools tend to be These countries have also all had to face questions about similar across systems in all five countries, although the where to locate supervision and support institutionally, sources of support vary according to the overall educational whether to keep these functions institutionally distinct or management structures. Types of support include: a) not, how to balance accountability and support (particularly additional financing; b) professional development for given the need for accurate information), how to provide teachers and principals; c) better access to information, data adequate financial resources and skilled human resources to and technology; d) supervision feedback; e) outside schools, and how to ensure the legitimacy of the systems. management advice or access to specialized services; f) Individual countries have made different choices in this services oriented to student non-academic needs; and g) regard but all have considered and answered these policy guidelines and examples. Institutional connections questions. between supervision and support are tightest in Finland and Korea where the supervising institutions also provide In the meantime, Poland has continued to explore some of support, and more loose in New Zealand where schools rely these questions and experiment with reforms. The MoE has primarily on the private sector for educational support issued a requirement that schools perform self-assessments services. and begun to train a cadre of Inspectorate staff on performing assessments that go beyond the traditional regulatory focus. The MoE has also approached the World Conclusion Bank regarding the possibility of using European Funds to contract the Bank’s continued technical assistance in this In all five countries examined, school supervision at the area. primary and secondary levels is mainly concerned with improving educational outcomes for students. The two primary levers used to improve student outcomes are accountability and support. While the experience of each of the countries studied is culturally and historically unique, no system is without some elements of both these levers. All five countries understand that insisting on accountability without offering support is unfair, while support without accountability can be unwise. The PISA (Programme for International Assessment) test is a standardized * international test coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international assessment of the mathematics and science About the Authors knowledge of forth and eighth-grade students around the world. It was developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement This Knowledge Brief was prepared by Sara Bin Mahfooz and Kate Hovde (consultants) under the guidance of Alberto (IEA) to allow participating nations to compare students’ educational achievement Rodriguez, Acting Sector Manager for the Education across borders. Sector, Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. “ECA Knowledge Brief” is a regular series of notes highlighting recent analyses, good practices and lessons learned from the development work program of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region http://www.worldbank.org/eca