What are the teacher policies of top-performing and rapidly-improving education systems?

There is increasing interest in policies that can improve teacher effectiveness. Over the past decade, both developed and developing countries have become growingly concerned with how to raise the effectiveness of their teachers. This interest seems to have been sparked by a series of factors: - Student achievement has been found to correlate with economic and social progress. - International assessments have identified countries that need to raise student learning. - Recent studies have shown teacher effectiveness is a key predictor of student learning.