RATING TEACHERS & REWARDING TEACHER PERFORMANCE:

THE CONTEXT OF SINGAPORE

Christine Kim-Eng Lee and Mei Ying Tan

Outline of Presentation

� Context of Singapore and the role of education

� Recruiting Teachers� Rating Teachers� Rewarding Teacher Performance� Concluding Remarks

• Small country (699 sq km) with limited natural resource

• Population: 4.839 million in 2008

• Multi-ethnic: Chinese (75%); Malay (13.7%); Indians (8.7%); Others (2.6%)

• Multi-religious: Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism

• Multi-lingual: English (Language of administration), Mandarin, Malay (National Language) & Tamil

• Unemployment Rate: 2.2%

The Singapore Context

Government Investment in Education - 3.49% of GDP in 2009

Role of Education in Singapore

� Nation-building� Economic Development� Social Cohesion

TOP PERFORMING EDUCATION SYSTEM

� Singapore is recognised as a top performing education system (McKinsey, 2007, TIMMS, PIRLS)

� Three attributing factors prevalent in top performing education systems (McKinsey, 2007)

• getting the right people to become teachers;• developing them into effective teachers;• ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible

instruction for every child.• Teacher quality made the largest difference in

student achievement and the most effective school systems invested in their teachers (McKinsey, 2007)

HIGH INVESTMENT IN TEACHER EDUCATION

� High investment in education in Singapore: An increase of 5.5% in the 2009 budget over 2008 providing a total of S$8,701 million

� Much of the investment goes to the development of teachers

� Teaching is a highly desirable profession in Singapore.

RECRUITING TEACHERS

TEACHER RECRUITMENT

� Stringent admission to NIE¾ Applicants need to be within the top 30% of their cohort to

qualify for an interview¾ Qualifying interview focuses on applicants’ communication

and interpersonal skills; willingness to learn and a strong motivation to teach

¾ Only 1 in 5 qualifies for admission

� Teaching is made attractive with: ¾ Salary and paid-for tuition fees for pre-service teachers.

¾ Trainee teachers with degree qualifications : S$2550 -S$2990.

¾ Trainee teachers without degree qualifications : S$1480 to S$1870

RATING TEACHERS

EPMS & EDU-PAC

¾ Appraisal and feedback have a strong positive influence on teachers and their work.

¾ The Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) is part of career and recognition system under Education Service Professional Development and Career Plan (EDU-PAC).

¾ There are 3 components in EDUPAC¾ a career path (teaching track, leadership track and

specialist track)¾ recognition through monetary reward¾ an evaluation system

EPMS

¾ Competency-based performance management system.

¾ Spells out the knowledge, skills and professional characteristics appropriate for each of the 3 career tracks (Teaching, Leadership and Senior Specialist)

¾ Provides greater clarity in terms of expectations and behaviours needed for success in each track

¾ Developmental in nature – aims to help officers improve themselves and better their performance.

THE WHAT OF PERFORMANCE - KRA

� Teachers are evaluated based on the “what” and “how” of performance. The “what” of performance is captured through Key Result Areas (KRA) which describes the broad areas of work expected of a teacher.

THE WHAT OF PERFORMANCE - KRA

� The KRAs for the Teaching Track are:� The holistic development of students through

� Quality learning of students� Pastoral care and well being of students� Co-curricular activities

� Contribution to the school� Collaboration with parents� Professional development

THE WHAT OF PERFORMANCE

� The knowledge and skills expected of a teacher complements the KRAs and they are:

� Knowledge:� Teaching Area – the content and curriculum knowledge

that teachers must know to teach in the classroom� Psychology – the knowledge of child development that

teachers must know to maximise pupil potential.� Developments in the field of education� Education Policies

� Skills:� Teaching Pedagogy – the pedagogic techniques and

approaches that teachers must practise to teach in the classroom.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Source: MOE. Enhanced Performance Management System – Teaching Fields of Excellence, p.7

THE HOW OF PERFORMANCE

Source: MOE. Enhanced Performance Management System – Teaching Fields of Excellence, p.4

Teaching Competency Model

9 Assessed on 9 out of 13 competencies

9 Behavioural indicators articulated for each level epms-wr_form-teachers.doc.

9 Rating scale from ‘Not Observed’, ‘Developing’ to ‘Competent’ and ‘Exceeding’

9 Expectations articulated for each competency for teachers at different levels. Master teachers expected to perform at higher levels.

REWARDING TEACHERS

SALARY AND PERFORMANCE BONUS

• Teachers are rewarded financially according to how they are evaluated in the Enhanced Performance Management System. ¾ Annual salary increments ¾ Differential Performance Bonus¾ 1 to 3 months salary for average to outstanding

performers.¾ awarded in March each year for the work done

during January to December of the year before.

Growth of Education Officers, through better Recognition, Opportunities, and seeing to their Well-being

GROW 2.0 PACKAGE

Source: MOE website on Teaching as a Career

CONtiNuity, Experience and Commitment in Teaching was put in place to increase teacher retention and to reward teachers for staying on in the Education Service.

CONNECT PLAN

• A sum of $3,200 to $8,320 is allocated every year for each teacher

• Monetary payout at defined points every 3 to 5 years ranging from $15,200 to $36,100.

• The total payout for each teacher who stays in service for 30 years amounts to a princely sum of S$214,120.

• Over the years, the overall attrition rate due to retirement and resignation has remained steady at a low rate of 2.4% (Lui, 2007).

ACCESS TO PD OPPORTUNITIES

• 100 hours of PD with resources provided for relief teachers.

• Funding for scholarships and study leave—both locally and abroad,

• Provision of enhanced sabbatical scheme. • Entitlement to 2½ months of full-pay leave for

teachers with 12 years of service. • Entitlement to claim S$400 or S$700 per year on

learning and development related expenses. • Access to rewards for outstanding team-based

contributions ($3,000 to $10,000)

CONCLUDING REMARKS

9Salary and career advancement are constantly scrutinized to make rewards attractive to teachers.

9The reward system is focused on rewarding excellence and reinforces the idea that rewards equals contribution.

9The evaluation system through the use of EPMS reflects the totality of a teacher’s contributions to their students, school and community (Sclafani, 2008).

9At the same time, continuous and deep support for teacher professional learning is a priority so that teachers would be able to perform well both in work and in year-end evaluations.

ISSUES

9 Implementation issues – new reporting officers and need for understanding/clear interpretation of the tool; lack of sources of evidence for the rating.

9Lack in the use of observation forms that are specific to particular subjects/domains and contexts and the use of forms that support the implementation of “reform” in classrooms.

9 Issues of power and negotiation among key personnel in the moderation process - Ranking of teachers within a school and across schools within a cluster.

9Performance grades in each school expected to follow a normal curve – D grader

Christine Kim-Eng LeeNational Institute of Education,

Singapore