We know teacher quality is critical to improving education, but how can donors and governments implement teacher professional development that changes the pedagogical focus to student-centered learning?

From 2014-2019, the U.S. Government, through Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the government of Georgia partnered to invest in human capital under MCC’s Second Compact with Georgia. MCC also funded rigorous evaluations to learn how well its investments in education worked.

The government of Georgia and MCC identified outdated teaching practices that lacked emphasis on critical thinking as a main challenge to teacher effectiveness. They designed the Training Educators for Excellence (TEE) Activity to target that specific challenge.

Compact objectives aligned well with prior progress made under the GPE-supported Education Strategy and Action Plan, and findings from MCC’s independent evaluation of the compact’s intensive training offer insights into how investments in teacher professional development interact with other policy decisions to ultimately improve the long-term trajectory of teaching quality and teacher effectiveness.

On-the-ground partnerships lead to implementation success

The success of the TEE Activity was built on strong partnerships between MCC, Georgia’s Teacher Professional Development Center (TPDC) within the Ministry of Education and Science, the project management consultant IREX, school directors and teachers.

During program implementation, a small team from IREX worked with the TPDC project management unit in the same offices, allowing for close collaboration. This implementation model allowed the government of Georgia to lead on all aspects of implementation while still offering access to international technical and project management assistance.

Changes in pedagogical focus take time, intensive training and coaching

Findings from MCC’s evaluation of the TEE Activity demonstrated professional development was successful in increasing both teacher knowledge and confidence in applying student-centered instructional practices, but that teachers needed time (2 years from completing the training) and support (from school directors, same-school peers and professional learning communities) to begin using those practices in the classroom on a regular basis.

Surveys in 2017 and 2018 showed that participation in the teacher and school director training was high and course take-up was partly motivated by a new career qualification ladder being established by Georgia’s Ministry of Education and Science.

The ladder defined teacher categories that corresponded to teacher pay, and completion of training modules counted towards higher compensation in some circumstances.

The 2019 teacher survey showed uptake rates of the new teaching practices had increased slightly as more and more teachers completed the training and had time to become more comfortable using the new pedagogy in the classroom, but this increase was not statistically significant.

Still, MCC and Georgia’s Ministry of Education and Science heard anecdotal evidence that the Leadership Academies, dedicated to school directors and senior teachers, were critically important in supporting teachers to change their teaching practices.

Further research is still needed, however, to understand how big of an impact TEE had on student learning, how long it would take for those impacts to manifest, and how the investment teacher professional development can be sustained.

The bigger picture: A successful partnership, but ongoing support and research is needed

The partnership between the U.S. government and the government of Georgia played a pivotal role in the success of this initiative and the ability of MCC to rigorously evaluate its projects and activities.

While it's clear that improving teaching quality is a prerequisite to increasing student learning, more research is needed to understand how policy decisions about teacher recruitment, management and support impact teaching effectiveness.

In Georgia, more support is needed to continue the professional development of teachers and there are still questions regarding the number of contact hours of training needed, which specific career incentives motivate teachers and the best way to recruit new teachers into the profession.

Findings from Georgia's education initiatives underscore the significance of long-term investments in education and the need for further support, from government and donors, for meaningful education system reform.

For further reading see MCC’s Evaluation Brief and full evaluation report.