Chartered Teacher Status: Frequently Asked Questions
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Why introduce Chartered Teacher Status?
Chartered Teacher status was introduced following the agreement A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. It is a means of rewarding teachers who wish to pursue a challenging career without having to leave the classroom. The Chartered Teacher Programme aims to encourage teachers to focus on the enhancement of teaching and learning and to separate the concepts of teaching from those of administration and management.
The quality of the education service depends pre-eminently on the quality of our teachers. If higher standards are to be achieved, and all pupils are to be effectively supported in achieving their potential, it is essential that teachers are well prepared for their work and that they have opportunities to extend and revitalise their skills throughout their career.
What is a Chartered Teacher?
The Standard for Chartered Teacher outlines the level of accomplishment teachers might seek to achieve after meeting the Standard for Full Registration and having established themselves in the profession.
The Standard has four key components:
- Professional values and personal commitments;
- Professional knowledge and understanding;
- Professional and personal attributes; and
- Professional action.
The Chartered Teacher is characterised by four central professional values and personal commitments:
- Effectiveness in promoting learning in the classroom;
- Critical self-evaluation and development;
- Collaboration and influence; and
- Educational and social values.
Accomplished teaching of the kind reflected in the Standard for Chartered Teacher is teaching in which the four central values and commitments permeate the work of the teacher in the classroom, the school and beyond. The Chartered Teacher will be effective in promoting learning and committed to the development of all forms of professional action.
Is the Chartered Teacher a promoted post?
No. The introduction of Chartered Teacher status is designed to ensure that teachers who choose to remain within the classroom have their contributions recognised and to provide an alternative career choice to promotion into a management post.
With Senior Teachers and Assistant Principal Teachers disappearing, can the Chartered Teacher escape being drawn into management?
Yes. All parties to the Agreement, A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century, are clear that this is not a rerun of the Senior Teacher post. Chartered Teacher status is protected by a clear specification within the Agreement. The Chartered Teacher will not have any additional management burden to that experienced by a teacher at the top of the main grade.
What is the remit of Chartered Teachers?
Chartered Teacher duties are described in Annex B of the document A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century, which can be found at: www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/tp21a-05.asp#b
The Chartered Teacher will, however, be a valuable resource in any school or local authority and should be used to promote professional excellence amongst all teachers, particularly in areas of staff and curriculum development. Chartered Teachers should demonstrate the capacity to contribute to the professional development of colleagues and to make a full contribution to the educational effectiveness of the school and the wider professional community.
How would a Chartered Teacher become a Principal Teacher or Headteacher?
Chartered Teachers will have the same opportunity to apply for promoted posts as any other teacher. As with any teacher, a Chartered Teacher seeking a headteacher post would need to be assessed against the Standard for Headship and undertake any additional professional development required to achieve that Standard.
How many teachers are eligible to become Chartered Teachers?
The Chartered Teacher Programme will be available to all teachers at the top of the main grade, who have maintained a CPD Portfolio. There is no cap on the number of teachers who can embark on a programme.
The last available figures indicated that 30,000 teachers would be eligible to apply for the Chartered Teacher Programme. This figure includes all teachers at the top of the main grade, Senior Teachers and Assistant Principal Teachers.
How will teachers be selected for the Chartered Teacher Programme?
The criteria for entry to the Chartered Teacher Programme are that candidates should be at the top of the main grade and that they should have maintained a CPD Portfolio.
Although the decision to embark on a programme is for the teacher, he or she will require the support of the school and possibly the local authority, to undertake a programme, as much of the work is expected to be conducted in schools and classrooms. Schools and local authorities will be required to justify any refusal to support a candidate.
What is the purpose of the CPD Portfolio?
The CPD Portfolio is a record held by the individual teacher and can be used for a variety of different purposes. Its primary function is to encourage teachers to become reflective practitioners, seeking an awareness of their own professional competence and evaluating their professional development on an ongoing basis.
Guidance on the professional review and development process, including best practice principles on the maintenance, content and purpose of a CPD Portfolio, will be issued to all teachers.
What will be included in the CPD Portfolio?
The CPD Portfolio will be a teacher's personal record of evidence and the specific contents will vary. It should include a reflective commentary on any CPD activity undertaken, which can be shown to contribute to a teacher's professional development.
How is the CPD Portfolio linked to the Chartered Teacher Programme?
One of the criteria for access to the Chartered Teacher Programme is that the teacher must have maintained a CPD Portfolio. The Portfolio should be recognised as a valuable tool for the reflective practitioner. It should provide evidence of teachers' commitment to CPD and their awareness of the impact of development experiences on practice.
The CPD Portfolio need not span a teacher's entire career. It is recognised that teachers will not necessarily have been maintaining a portfolio prior to A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. It will, however, be expected that those wishing to undertake the Chartered Teacher Programme have maintained a portfolio from August 2002. Where a CPD Portfolio is not maintained, the individual's headteacher/local authority will be entitled to refuse to support the prospective candidate's entry to a programme.
One of the advantages of having a portfolio is that it can be used as an evidence base for a teacher's claim for prior learning. Without such a portfolio any claim made by a teacher may be harder for them to evidence.
What about giving credit for prior learning?
There is a clear commitment to give credit for prior learning. Prior learning may be formal (existing certificates or diplomas), or may be experiential (derived through developing practice or by undertaking non-award bearing courses).
It is envisaged that a candidate who wishes credit for prior learning will be able to claim for academic and/or experiential learning. Accreditation mechanisms will be developed to ensure fairness, consistency and rigour.
There is no guarantee that a candidate who already has a specific post-graduate qualification (e.g. M.Ed) will automatically be credited with modules in the Chartered Teacher Programme as it will depend on whether the qualification relates to the Standard for Chartered Teacher.
Core Module One will be compulsory for all teachers and will provide an opportunity for candidates to analyse critically the concept of professionalism and professional standards and to reflect on their own professional development, past, present and future. Upon successful completion of this module, candidates will be given the opportunity to claim credit for any prior learning or experience they feel provides evidence of meeting particular elements of the Standard for Chartered Teacher. Guidelines on the principles and mechanisms for accreditation of prior learning and experience will be issued shortly.
Will credit for prior learning be time-barred?
Not necessarily. Prior learning has to be shown to be current and relevant. The key question will be whether the prior learning is demonstrated as having a continuing impact on practice. If it has taken place within the last 5-year period, it will normally be accepted automatically as current. For learning experiences undertaken outwith the 5-year period, the onus will be on the individual to prove its continuing impact.
The use of cut-off dates may also depend on which provider is chosen by the teacher as, for example, academic institutions have their own rules regarding the accreditation of prior learning.
Who will bear the costs of training?
The financial settlement arising from the Agreement, A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century, makes no allowance for the costs of undertaking a Chartered Teacher Programme. The expectation is that Chartered Teacher candidates will contribute to the cost of their modules. Discussions regarding the division of costs are, however, ongoing.
How can equal access possibly be provided given the very different contexts across the country?
Use will be made of open, flexible and distance learning modes, especially e-learning. The delivery of a programme will be designed so that it will not matter which part of the country you are in when undertaking modules that are part of a Chartered Teacher Programme.
How will Chartered Teachers sustain the professional competences comprising the Standard?
Like all teachers, qualified Chartered Teachers will be required to undertake 35 hours of CPD each year. The professional review and development process will ensure CPD enables Chartered Teachers to maintain and improve upon the Standard for Chartered Teacher. The Scottish Executive is liaising with local authorities, teacher organisations and the General Teaching Council for Scotland regarding specific CPD needs and means of assessing Chartered Teachers on an ongoing basis.
Will teachers retain Chartered Teacher status even if they move to a new school/leave teaching for a few years?
Yes. However, if they have a significant period away from the classroom there may be a need to assess their continuing ability to meet the Standard for Chartered Teacher. This area will be considered in conjunction with the process of ongoing assessment of Chartered Teachers described above.
Will managers or employers be able to decide what modules a candidate will study?
This decision is a matter ultimately for the candidate. It is hoped, however, that through the professional review and development process, the candidate would consider advice on development needs from his or her manager and other sources as appropriate. The purpose of professional review and development is to provide a supportive and helpful feedback process on the direction a teacher's professional development is taking or could take.
As each programme must meet the Standard for Chartered Teacher, the modules selected must together enable the candidate to address all of the elements of that Standard. Teachers should seek assurances from the provider and the body that is responsible for accrediting the Standard for Chartered Teacher (i.e. the GTCS), that the work they are doing will meet the Standard for Chartered Teacher.
Will managers or employers determine whether a candidate has succeeded in achieving any particular module?
No. Consultation Paper 2 suggested that it would be for the candidate, acting on tutor advice, to propose how the assessors might best be able to judge the claims to be verified. The candidate can draw on a wide range of evidence including, where relevant:
- Reports of work-based observation;
- Self-assessment;
- Inputs from pupils such as evaluation data, or examples of pupils' work;
- Reports from peers, managers and/or external assessors; and
- Professional materials produced such as syllabuses, teaching materials, etc.
Will pilot modules lead to awards?
It is expected that they will contribute to the achievement of Chartered Teacher status if they are validated, accredited and completed successfully.
Will the Chartered Teacher be graded?
No. The Programme will consist of a number of modules and each one will be assessed so that an overall pass can be built up step by step.
What title is given to someone on points 1-5 of the Chartered Teacher scale?
There will be no distinct title for any candidate undertaking the Chartered Teacher Programme. Candidates will continue to be "teachers" until successful completion of the entire programme, whereupon they will become Chartered Teachers.
How does progression through a Chartered Teacher Programme affect pay?
Once a candidate has entered the Chartered Teacher Programme he or she will receive one salary increment for every two modules attained. It does not matter whether these modules have been attained by study or by accreditation of prior learning.
Where individual candidates are placed on the Chartered Teacher scale will depend upon the evidence they can provide of meeting the various competences outlined in the Standard for Chartered Teacher.
Will itinerant teachers/supply teachers/job sharers be able to undertake the Chartered Teacher Programme?
All teachers will be able to apply for the Chartered Teacher Programme, which is being developed to ensure that all teachers have the same opportunities.
What happens to those who are currently Senior Teachers or Assistant Principal Teachers?
In August 2003, Senior Teachers and Assistant Principal Teachers will assimilate, for salary purposes, to the third point of the Chartered Teacher scale, which is equivalent to the first pay point on the Principal Teacher pay range.
Thereafter, former Senior Teachers and Assistant Principal Teachers will have the same opportunity to pursue the Chartered Teacher route as any main grade teacher.
Those who do choose to undertake a programme will be required to complete Core Module One and will then be given the opportunity to claim for prior learning. If, having claimed for prior learning, they are told they have to do more than six modules to achieve the Standard for Chartered Teacher, they will only be eligible to receive additional increments once they have passed the modular equivalent of their conserved salary level.
How much study is involved in each module?
The amount of time taken to study a module will vary. However, most universities refer to a 'notional' 150 hours study per module. Much of the work of each module will relate closely to the teacher's practice in the classroom and school. Candidates will be expected to carry out some of the programme in their own time in the evenings and at weekends.
Who will provide modules?
It is envisaged that there will be a range of modules provided by partnerships drawn from universities, education authorities, further education colleges, private providers and teaching organisations. It is likely that most partnerships will involve a university.
When will Chartered Teacher Programmes be available?
We are on target to have Chartered Teacher Programmes available from August 2003.
What stages of Chartered Teacher Programme development have still to be completed before August 2003?
The accreditation criteria for potential providers of the Chartered Teacher Programme have yet to be finalised. These should be agreed and published early in 2003.
Guidelines on the principles and mechanisms for accreditation of prior learning and experience will be established and made available early in 2003.
How can teachers keep up to date with developments?
The following websites provide information on Chartered Teachers and the CPD Framework:
www.ctprogrammescotland.org.uk
www.teachinginscotland.com