As part of the new system to hire teachers in Mexico, the Ministry of Education has decided to publish the tests results on the internet.
The results are easy to download and available to anyone. The identity of the teacher is naturally concealed but the information can facilitate an analysis on teacher retention, migration and promotion.
We are very likely to conduct such study.
Just found something on KIPP shools and the power of having a good school principal.
Kipp schools are a network of middle and high schools with a couple of good innovative and simple ideas. One of them is the ability of principals to run the school with relatively more independence than other schools. Parents choose to send their kids to KIPP schools (exercising choice). And thirdly, kids spend more time in KIPP schools than in other schools.
The KIPP network has over a little over 70 schools now, most of which are middle schools. And, perhaps the most salient feature is that most kids in KIPP schools are from low-income households. The results of these schools in knowledge tests have been more than convincing.
So here is it, a good practice, where school directors make the difference. Nothing new, since organizations typically thrive under good leadership.
So I looked into teacher hiring trends in Mexico.
Here is what I found.
In the last four decades, the Mexican government has hired more teachers than what was needed by the school system. In 1970 every teacher had approximately 35 students on average and in 2007 every teacher had only 20 students on average. Both measures are below Maimonides rule of 40 students per teacher.
This suggests that there are enough teachers but that they may be geographically concentrated in some place, or badly distributed.
I also confirmed high hiring rates in the 1970s. Hiring in those years was partly a response to more students coming to the system. But, hiring has always exceeded the demand for more teachers in the last four decades.
Mexico has begun to administer a nationwide test for teachers who apply for new openings. The results were posted a few weeks ago with very discouraging results.
I think this is a very positive step towards a more competitive assignment of new openings.
It seems that in the coming few years more teachers will be retiring than ever. This can be a golden opportunity to introduce more competition in teacher hiring. But the new reform in teacher hiring undertaken by the Ministry of Education seems challenging. Especially because the union in Mexico is stronger than ever.
Here is a discussion on the subject by Andres Oppenheimer.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/andres-oppenheimer/story/655325.html
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La Secretaria de Educacion en Mexico ha iniciado un examen national para evaluar a los profesores que desean obtener una plaza. Los resultados de estas pruebas se dieron a conocer hace algunas semanas. Los resultados fueron muy desalentadores.
Sin embargo, esta evaluacion es un paso positivo para la asignacion de las nuevas plazas.
Al parecer, en los proximos años se jubilaran un numero considerable de maestros. Esta puede ser una oportunidad de oro para una reforma que cambie la forma de hacer las nuevas contrataciones. La nueva reforma promovida por la Secretaria de Educacion parece dificil, sobretodo, si consideramos que el sindicato de maestros es mas fuerte que nunca.
Here is a video of one of our schools in Chiapas.
If you would like to see more videos go to our videos page.
