This study has emerged as an initiative of the Network of Education Policy Centres addressing the lack of comprehensive comparative studies on teacher policies in the region where its members are active – the new Member States of the EU, Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership countries and Central Asia and Mongolia.
The study maps teacher policies in the diverse region represented by NEPC members. All data in this report is based on the situation in 2013 when the research was done. As a basis for this exercise, SABERTeachers methodology of the World Bank was adapted. As pointed out by the World Bank paper on teacher policies in the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) series, ‘Recent studies have shown teacher effectiveness is a key predictor of student learning.
A number of studies have found that teacher effectiveness is the most important school- based predictor of student learning and that several consecutive years of outstanding teaching can offset learning deficits of disadvantaged students (Hanushek & Rivkin 2010; Hanushek, Kain, O’Brien & Rivkin 2005; Rockoff 2004; Sanders & Rivers 1996).