Setting the stage for improved learning: the state of teacher policies in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic

In Central America and the Dominican Republic there is growing concern about the quality of education. Schools do not teach children and youths the skills they need to successfully enter the labor market and contribute to society. Despite the importance of teachers in the learning process, in most countries of the region the systems for recruiting, selecting, training, retaining and supporting teachers remain deficient. Moreover, the groups that should be most engaged with governments to demand improvements in teaching and students’ learning— parents, business people, and society in general—are often on the margins of the debate. PREAL’s Teacher Policy Report Cards seek to nurture informed debate about teacher policies through systematic studies of the state and progress of such policies in the schools of each country studied. This regional report summarizes the main findings and recommendations of monitoring reports for the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in 2015.