Austria
Sources: OECD (2020[1]), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume II): Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals, TALIS, https://doi.org/10.1787/19cf08df-en; OECD (2020[2]), "Learning remotely when schools close: How well are students and schools prepared? Insights from PISA", OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19), OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3bfda1f7-en; OECD (2019[3]), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en; OECD (2019[4]), PISA 2018 Results (Volume II): Where All Students Can Succeed, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b5fd1b8f-en; OECD (2019[5]), PISA 2018 Results (Volume III): What School Life Means for Students’ Lives, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/acd78851-en.
Selected education policies for Austria
Autonomy of Schools Package (Bildungsreformgesetz, 2017)
►. Level of resilience: Broader learning environment
Austria’s Autonomy of Schools Package aims to strengthen schools’ and school leaders’ decision-making capacity while ensuring quality across the system and strengthening collaboration between schools. Measures give schools greater autonomy over the organisation of school time and learning groups so that these can be better adapted to student needs and the local context. The development of evidence-informed monitoring and quality assurance mechanisms has been a key pillar of the reform. The Federal Ministry of Education, Research, and Science has developed indicators on school quality such as learning outcomes, retention rates, school environment and educational pathways. The Quality of Schools Framework, launched in 2021, has also been important in this regard. Federal states can also bring together clusters of 2–8 schools to promote collaboration, the sharing of resources, and to support the smooth transition of students between schools. As of late 2021, pilot clusters existed in two Austrian provinces.
Austria has combined measures to support school autonomy and innovation with measures to improve the selection and qualification of school leaders. School leaders now have greater autonomy over staffing, recruitment and performance management. An autonomy blog provides school leaders with resources on different aspects of autonomous school management. According to some emerging evidence, in the early stages of the pandemic, successful autonomous schools made use of this flexibility to adapt emergency education measures to the needs of their students (Lehner, 2020[6]).
Further reading: OECD (2019[7]), Education Policy Outlook 2019: Working Together to Help Students Achieve their Potential, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/2b8ad56e-en.
8-Point Plan for Digital Learning (8-Punkte-Plan für den digitalen Unterricht, 2020)
►. Level of resilience: Broader learning environment
Austria’s federal government launched the 8-Point Plan for Digital Learning in June 2020. The plan supports the goals of the Master Plan for Digitisation in Education (Masterplan für die Digitalisierung im Bildungswesen), a pre-existing strategy that aims to improve the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning, develop digital skills and awareness among young people, and promote interest in technology and technological development. Key measures include aligning the digital resources on the Eduthek platform – developed in the early stages of the pandemic – with the school curriculum. The government also plans to equip 5th and 6th grade students with personal devices from 2021, based on schools’ digitalisation plans. Schools that participate in the initiative will also receive devices for teachers. As part of the initiative, the government launched a range of online learning courses for teachers in the summer of 2020, with a particular focus on blended and distance learning.
In this sense, the plan builds on the advances in digital learning made in the early stages of the pandemic and aims to strengthen the capacity of schools to provide digital learning in the future. The government will invest EUR 200 million in the programme by 2022. Given the economic challenges facing governments across the world, it will be important to ensure that this investment has an impact on learning, and that resources are used efficiently. Careful and continuous monitoring and evaluation will therefore be key.
Further reading: Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research of Austria (n.d.[8]), 8-Point Plan for Digital Learning, https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/en/Topics/school/krp/8_p_p.html (accessed 1 February 2021).
References
Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research of Austria (n.d.), 8-Point Plan for Digital Learning, https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/en/Topics/school/krp/8_p_p.html (accessed on 1 February 2021). [8]
Lehner, A. (2020), Autonome Schulen sind situationselastisch und krisenfest [Autonomous schools are flexible and crisis-proof], https://www.schulautonomie.at/2020/07/autonome-schulen-sind-situationselastisch-und-krisenfest/ (accessed on 1 February 2021). [6]
OECD (2020), Learning remotely when schools close: How well are students and schools prepared? Insights from PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/3bfda1f7-en. [2]
OECD (2020), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume II): Teachers and School Leaders as Valued Professionals, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/19cf08df-en. [1]
OECD (2019), Education Policy Outlook 2019: Working Together to Help Students Achieve their Potential, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/2b8ad56e-en. [7]
OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume II): Where All Students Can Succeed, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/b5fd1b8f-en. [4]
OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume III): What School Life Means for Students’ Lives, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/acd78851-en. [5]
OECD (2019), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en. [3]