Teacher appraisal in Romania: Ensuring appraisal supports teachers' professional development

This chapter looks at how Romania evaluates teaching practice and supports teachers to improve through its teacher appraisal system. Romania uses a combination of appraisal types but their developmental function is limited, reducing support for teacher growth. Developing professional teacher standards would help to ensure that all teachers are appraised according to common criteria for effective teaching. Teachers’ development would be better supported if their regular appraisals carried reduced stakes for their career and pay, and included more formative practices such as open discussion and feedback. To ensure that only motivated candidates with the right attributes enter the teaching profession, the appraisals to complete probation should enforce a minimum threshold for entry, while providing new teachers with the support they need to grow professionally. Finally, reviewing the system of linking appraisals to salary bonuses and creating differentiated career paths for teachers which fairly reward those taking on new roles and responsibilities will help to encourage teachers to develop their skills throughout their career.