The OECD's recipe for the Catalan school: teaching incentives, power for principals and a "coherent" evaluation

BarcelonaWith two months to go until the results of a new PISA report are known – the exams that sounded all the alarms about the level of Catalan students in 2023 – the OECD presented its analysis of the Catalan education system this Monday. A report that Salvador Illa's government asked the OECD a year and a half ago with the aim of finding the longed-for recipe to improve educational results. Although the recipe is new, the ingredients are well known: more inclusion of diversity within the classroom, incentives in the teaching career, strengthening of the role of management, and a "coherent" and aligned evaluation.

The document that the international organization has handed over to the Government, and which is titled Improvement of learning outcomes in Catalonia,focuses mainly on equity and inclusion; teachers and school management; evaluation and governance, and financing. The OECD breaks down strengths and weaknesses of each of these points and makes a series of recommendations. "It is not just another report, it is an agreement that will help us improve the educational system with one of the most respected and powerful institutions [the OECD] in education in the world," defended the Secretary for Educational Improvement of the Department of Education, Ignasi Giménez. While celebrating the analysis, for the moment, Education has not yet explained what actions will be taken following the OECD report.

Inclusion

Regarding equity and inclusion, the report points out that Catalan schools "operate in an increasingly diverse demographic, social, and linguistic environment." This reality creates "new opportunities and demands for schools." Furthermore, the OECD also highlights "persistent socioeconomic inequalities, recent evidence of declining learning outcomes, and growing disparities." Faced with this scenario, it recommends, among other things, creating a "coherent support system" to implement inclusive education, which should include "constant access to emotional and psychological support within schools," as well as strengthening the early identification of students' needs.

It also proposes strengthening measures to combat school segregation through planning policies and making good use of reserved places, and calls for strengthening the capacity of teachers and directors to implement inclusive practices in the classroom. "More emphasis should be placed on translating political expectations into concrete teaching practices," it assures in the report.

Teachers

The OECD values the "strong professional commitment of teachers to equity and inclusion" and assures that teachers "have a degree of pedagogical autonomy that favours the adaptation of instruction to different classroom contexts". However, it also warns that there are several shortcomings that "can limit professional commitment translating into sustained improvements in the quality of teaching".

In this regard, international experts propose a dozen measures concerning teachers and school and institute principals, including the need to define common standards to guide the teaching profession "by aligning initial teacher training, evaluation and professional learning".

They also urge Catalonia to develop a "more attractive professional teaching structure that aligns with the system's priorities". They explain that this structure should offer clearer progression pathways and recognise expertise by aligning incentives with system priorities. In addition, they also put forward the option of expanding the roles of specialists in inclusion and pedagogy and the possibility of creating a "senior teacher" category linked to voluntary evaluation. In this section on incentives, during the presentation of the report, the head of the OECD's Public Policy Advice and Implementation Division, Paulo Santiago, put forward the option of "paying higher bonuses" to better-qualified teachers to go to more complex centres, instead of opting for a linear reduction in ratios as a measure to improve results. In fact, Santiago warned that significantly reducing ratios can be a problem in a situation of teacher shortages, as less qualified professionals end up being hired to meet the need for new teachers for more student groups.

As various experts have already warned, the OECD also proposes to strengthen initial teacher training "by making its content more relevant, strengthening practical training and ensuring adequate quality". In this regard, the OECD's project manager and policy analyst, Diana Toledo, warned that there is "a large catalogue of training" but that "it is not clear how to use it as part of an improvement strategy".

The document also refers to a widely reported problem among teachers and principals: it is necessary to "reduce the administrative burden on teachers and principals so that they can dedicate more time to tasks with greater impact and focused on pedagogy".

Principals

Regarding school leadership, the international body's document warns that pedagogical leadership in schools needs to be improved. In this regard, it assures that it is necessary to "support" management teams by giving them time and space so that they can organize and focus on teaching.

Furthermore, the OECD also addresses one of the elephants in the room of the Catalan system: the role of leadership in staff selection. The body assures that it is necessary to "strengthen the role of school principals in teacher assignment processes" to provide stability to the system. "Greater involvement of management teams in personnel decisions would help to match teacher profiles to the school's needs, especially in highly complex contexts," it argues. It should be noted here that Catalonia has reduced to a minimum the cases in which a principal can conduct interviews to choose which teacher profile will work at the center they direct. An action highly criticized by school principals.

Evaluation

Finally, the OECD also urges Catalonia to build a "coherent" evaluation system. The analysis assures that it is necessary to "clarify the purposes" of the key components of the system (student assessment, school evaluation, system monitoring and inspection) in order to improve. It points out that it is necessary to integrate "evaluation into regular professional practice" and also to "improve the accessibility and communication of evaluation results" in general.

In this section, the international body also focuses on the role that the new Catalan Evaluation Agency should play. It explains that at the beginning it is necessary to "prioritize" immediate actions so that the agency generates an impact. In this regard, it points out that a "key priority" must be to strengthen the role of student assessment with the "improvement of its methodological quality, reporting, and pedagogical use". Furthermore, it also calls for guaranteeing the agency's independence so that it is not affected by changes in political cycles.