United States urged to raise teachers’ status

States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better, and paying them more, according to a new report on comparative educational systems.

Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the international achievement test known as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), says in his report that top-scoring countries like Korea, Singapore, and Finland recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other help in the classroom, and take steps to raise respect for the profession. To learn more, read the full article by Sam Dillon in the Education section of The New York Times.