This blog also benefited from contributions and reviews by Sissy Helguero, Anne Guison-Dowdy and Ramya Vivekanandan.

Last year, GPE commissioned a study to assess teaching quality in partner countries.

Teaching quality is one of the eight priority areas in the GPE 2025 strategy, with the goal that partner countries have qualified, motivated and well-supported teachers who can unleash children’s learning potential.

Assessing the quality of teaching helps diagnose and inform the partnership on priorities for teaching practice, institutional support and policy design for more effective teaching.

Two consulting firms, Triple Line and Learn More, conducted the study, which collected and analyzed data on 76 partner countries using classroom observations from 2017 to 2021 at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels of education.

The data used was derived from publicly available sources and served to establish the baseline for the GPE Results Framework indicator on teaching quality (“Proportion of countries where teaching quality is assessed”).

Data has been organized in a database that allows for disaggregated analysis. A second round of data collection will take place by 2025 to continue to measure key domains of the teaching-learning interaction that help students learn. Results will also be reported in GPE Results Framework.

The database categorizes countries by level of development for assessing teaching quality (i.e. advanced, established, emerging, and not reported) using classroom observations (see the indicator methodology for more details). The table below shows the criteria or rubric used to assess teaching quality in partner countries.

Results from classroom observations across partner countries

Fifty-two of 76 GPE partner countries (68%) conducted classroom observations to assess teaching quality between 2017 and 2021. 51% of these partner countries assessed teaching quality at an established or advanced level of development.

Types of classroom observation tools

Partner countries use a variety of classroom observation tools and methodologies to assess teaching quality. The use of a specific classroom observation tool does not translate automatically to one level of assessment of teaching quality.

Twenty-six out of 76 countries have used existing classroom observation tools designed by international institutions or by national authorities. The TEACH tool (developed by the World Bank), or its adaptation, was the most common tool used (12 countries). Countries seldom report how they adapted international tools to their context.

What classroom observations assess and at what level

In most cases, classroom observations are implemented in only one level of education, generally primary, followed by secondary, and pre-primary. Classroom observations tended to assess the quality of teaching (such as how teachers deliver instruction or the classroom environment) rather than the quantity of teaching (such as time spent teaching or teacher attendance).

Among the 32 countries where classroom observations cover the quantity of teaching, eight assess time teachers spend on teaching while only four countries assess teachers’ attendance. Both are observed in 20 countries.

Among the 49 countries covering the quality of teaching domain, the most covered sub-criterion is how teachers provide instruction (44 countries), followed by classroom environment (40 countries), teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (38 countries), and use of socio-emotional skills (32 countries).

Strengthening GPE’s work on teaching quality

The new study provides valuable information for the partnership. Until now, information on assessment of teaching quality had not been collated across partner countries. Data on the use of classroom observations in partner countries has often been hard to track down or difficult to verify.

The database that emerged from this research is a rich collection of country-level information for GPE and its partners to understand whether and how partner countries are assessing teaching quality through classroom observations, the domains that are prioritized, and in some cases, the findings of those observations.

This data is valuable in helping GPE target its support to partner countries, as it provides useful information on both data availability and quality of teaching. Such findings can help GPE and its partners determine the most effective investments and technical support to promote effective teaching and learning.

More broadly, understanding how countries are conceptualizing quality teaching can help GPE and partners think about the most effective leverage points to transform education systems and work towards policy strategies that ensure that teachers receive the support they need to better teach their students.