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Teacher Success

Saskatchewan teachers, as expressed in the Federation policy on Teacher Success (1998, amended 2003), believe that they should be supported to become as competent and successful as possible as they carry out their professional roles.

Throughout their careers, individual teachers experience various degrees of success in meeting a range of professional goals and objectives, that include:

• Conducting professional relationships in ways that are consistent with the principles of equity, fairness and respect for others.
• Creating and maintaining a learning environment that encourages and supports each student to reach the highest level of individual achievement possible.
• Demonstrating a professional level of knowledge about the curriculum.
• Demonstrating a repertoire of instructional strategies and methods that are applied in teaching activities.
• Possessing the professional knowledge, skills and judgment to carry out the teacher’s responsibility for student assessment and evaluation.
• Reflecting, individually and collectively, upon the goals as well as the experience of professional practice, and adapt one’s teaching accordingly.
• Working with colleagues in ways that are mutually supportive, and develop to the fullest extent possible effective professional relationships with students, administrators, parents and other members of the educational community.

Legitimate questions or concerns about an individual’s teaching practice typically involve situations in which, taking the full context of the practice into consideration, a teacher demonstrates an unacceptably low level of professional knowledge, skill, or judgment or a disregard for the welfare of the student to an extent that renders the teacher unfit to continue teaching.

Questionable practices include one or more of the following patterns of conduct in which a teacher:

• Takes no action or makes minimal effort in the face of manifest needs or opportunities to act on behalf of students.
• Treats students in an unacceptably unjust or disrespectful manner.
• Makes poor decisions and judgments in shaping students’ educational experiences.
• Persistently fails to implement the provincial curriculum conscientiously and diligently, or performs at an unacceptably low level in carrying out teaching objectives and other professional responsibilities.

To carry out their professional responsibilities, teachers should be supported through a broad spectrum of structures, processes and resources, that include:

• Provincial, school division and school level policies and practices that support and enhance teacher success and are developed with the direct involvement of teachers.
• Employment conditions that are consistent with the teaching profession’s understanding of an equitable, ethical, healthy and safe work environment.
• Teaching assignments and other related duties or responsibilities that are commensurate with an  individuals teacher's professional knowledge, skills and experience while taking into consideration the context in which the teacher works.
• Designated time, teaching resources, opportunities for professional reflection and growth, and other supports, as identified by the teaching profession, that enable teachers to create and maintain a learning environment that meets students’ diverse educational needs.

Accountability for teacher success is a responsibility that is shared among key participants in the publicly funded education system. Individual teachers are responsible for setting personal goals and objectives for a successful professional practice, conducting one’s professional practice in ways that are consistent with the professional codes and policies developed by Saskatchewan teachers for Saskatchewan teachers, and engaging in career-long personal and professional reflection, and self-directed professional growth opportunities as necessary.

The teaching profession is primarily responsible for addressing, in ways that are consistent with The Teachers' Federation Act, 2006, and STF bylaws and policies, situations where there are questionable practices.

The education community as a whole is primarily responsible for ensuring that the supports for teacher success, as identified by the teaching profession, are available and that these supports are revised or expanded as necessary.