Closing the evidence loop in teacher professional practice

The quality and accountability expectations provides the immediate reference point for consideration of teacher professional practice in 2017. For corrective action, the method set out here treats improvement as a controlled cycle of diagnosis, action, measurement and review. Assessment should consider learner impact, institutional accountability and stewardship of entrusted resources.

For teacher professional practice, responsibility should be identifiable at the point where consequential decisions are made. A complete improvement record should define the baseline, affected scope, causal hypothesis, responsible owner, resources, milestones and measures of effectiveness. Escalation should follow whenever the available record cannot support a safe conclusion for the affected learners.

Scope of the improvement

This analysis is informed by quality and accountability expectations. Its relevance to teacher professional practice should be assessed against the affected jurisdiction, learner population and form of provision. The international development warrants attention, but a consequential conclusion still requires current, attributable and representative evidence for the affected scope.

Review of the relevant practice should be based on a stated method rather than general assurance. In work concerning teacher professional practice, the subject should be examined as a connected system of policy, people, resources, decisions and evidence. Material failure may occur at the transfer of responsibility or information even where separate functions appear adequate. Decision-makers should receive an intelligible account of how the result was reached and where it should not be applied.

Failure in relation to the relevant practice may arise even where the stated policy is reasonable. Material concerns include workload that limits preparation and feedback, vacancies or turnover affecting continuity, use of staff outside their competence, and deployment unrelated to learner need. Within the scope under review, the assessment of an exception should address severity, persistence and the likelihood that the condition is more widely present.

Relevant evidence for the corrective action will normally include observation and learner feedback, support and supervision records, retention and continuity indicators, qualification and competence records, and workload and allocation data. For teacher professional practice, the conclusion should rely on evidence whose date, source and coverage are sufficient for the decision. Conflicting records require reconciliation before a complete assurance conclusion is reached.

Implementation responsibilities

Authorities and providers reviewing teacher professional practice should proceed in a defined sequence. A competent review of the corrective action should map the complete process, identify the intended result and responsible authority at each stage, and test normal cases together with exceptions. An isolated incident and a recurring or systemic condition require different findings and responses. The record for teacher professional practice should distinguish a finding that requires action from an observation that supports no formal conclusion.

The assurance record for teacher professional practice should retain the date of the evidence, the source responsible for it, the scope examined and the version of any instrument or definition applied. Revision should not remove an earlier conclusion from the record where reliance has occurred.

• Who controls each stage?
• What action is required by the finding?
• Where do exceptions occur?
• Which evidence establishes operation?
• What outcome is intended?

Testing effectiveness

Accountability for teacher professional practice should follow decision-making authority. Evidence of material risk should be placed before the body with authority to act, together with a traceable decision. Delegation of delivery does not remove the need for a named authority to oversee material learner impact.

Improvement of teacher professional practice should proceed through controlled tests where risk permits.

• Forecast workforce need.
• Maintain continuity arrangements, with responsibility, scope and timing recorded.
• Verify competence before assignment.
• Evaluate professional learning in practice before it is relied on for a decision with material effect.
• Monitor workload and turnover, identifying the accountable function and affected scope.

Maintaining the result

For teacher professional practice, the public interest is not confined to institutional compliance. Education quality depends on sufficient numbers of competent staff who are prepared, supported and assigned work they can perform effectively.

Conclusions concerning corrective action require careful treatment of scope and evidential limits. For teacher professional practice, qualifications and participation in training are inputs. For the matter, correcting an individual record does not establish that the process which produced the error has been corrected. Decision-makers and affected users should receive the conclusion together with its material evidential limits.

For authorities and providers, the present development requires a clear account of how the corrective action is implemented and how its effect is established. When examining teacher professional practice, public confidence cannot be separated from an institution's ability to identify responsibility and substantiate its conclusions.