Partnership for effective and sustainable in-service training practice at-scale

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Education is an important determinant of economic growth and poverty reduction. The relationship between individuals’ education and earnings within countries is consistent and persuasive. Studies show that the rate of return to an additional year of schooling ranges from 8.5% - 37.6%, and a highly skilled workforce can raise a country’s economic growth rate by two thirds of a percentage point each year. In fact, it has been found that every $1 invested in education and skills creates $10 of economic growth. With that in mind, and with its stated mission “to reduce poverty through economic growth,” since its establishment in 2004, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in numerous partner countries to improve education and training.

Yet decades of experience show that investment alone is not enough to improve learning outcomes. Despite impressive gains in access, many education systems still fail to produce the student learning outcomes that lead to economic growth and poverty reduction. This deficit in learning has at least four immediate causes, including inadequate teacher skills and ineffective school management practice (World Bank 2018). As the body of evidence grows on effective in-service teacher training, research indicates that the most effective elements of in-service teacher training are rarely included in at-scale programs (Popova, et al. 2018).

The objective of this panel is to share the story of the planning and implementation of the Training Educators for Excellence (TEE) Project in Georgia. The Project is unique in many ways—it is a multi-stakeholder Project, research-based initiative run on a countrywide scale that has attempted to influence the role and behavior of principals, school-based professional development facilitators (SPDFs) and teachers through a series of training experiences, guided practice activities and professional interactions designed to make schools and classrooms more effective learning environments. TEE focuses on STEM subjects as well as such components (formative assessment, ICT, gender and social inclusion) which have never been prioritized before. TEE offers principals, SPDFs and teachers not a one-time professional development opportunity but rather an experience extended in time and delivered in diverse formats. The core and subject-specific trainings followed by quarterly meetings, study groups, and annual conferences, provide opportunities to the target audience to further advance the acquired knowledge, skills and competencies through collaboration and experience sharing, and grant more durable character to the whole practice.

The panel will share the story of donor, government, and INGO efficient partnership to provide targeted in-service training to teachers, principals as well as school-based facilitators and education resource centers (ERCs) country-wide. How roles and responsibilities are distributed across the stakeholders will be explained, and how each party supports the other to achieve a common goal will be highlighted. The discussion will also explain how the described partnership model contributes to the sustainability of the achieved outcomes.

Panelists from MCC and Millenium Challenge Account-Georgia will discuss the role of donors in effectively influencing in-service training design toward the most effective practices at scale. Panelists representing the Republic of Georgia’s National Center for Teacher Professional Development (TPDC) and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport will speak about the government’s role in designing and carrying out in-service training that will have long-term impact on the education system and contribute to human capital development. A speaker from IREX will discuss how an INGO can play an effective but limited role in technical support and quality assurance for in-service training that is primarily led by a government partner.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Eurasia

Chair

• Amy Bernath, IREX

Individual Presentations

• Millennium Challenge Corporation - Isabel Dillener, Millennium Challenge Corporation

• Millennium Challenge Account Georgia - Magda Magradze, Millennium Challenge Account-Georgia

• Teacher Professional Development Center - Nino Maisuradze, National Center for Teacher Professional Development

• International Research and Exchange Board - Amy Bernath, IREX

• Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Georgia - Irina Abuladze, National Centre for Teacher Professional Development

Discussant

• Sophia Gorgodze, National Assessment and Examinations Center; Ilia State University;