The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its report "Progress in Reforming Basic Education in Mexico: an OECD Perspective", that it is necessary to improve the exam used for the allocation of teaching positions, and to continue to introduce the use of more authentic means for evaluating teachers' knowledge and skills, based on performance.
Among these is the use of portfolios of evidence, which was launched by the federal government as a pilot program for the 2011-2012 school year, in which candidates for teaching positions in preschool, elementary and in English voluntarily presented different elements for additional evaluation. Among those presented were: classroom observations, preparation of classes and self-evaluation.
Regarding this, the OECD reminded the Secretariat of Education of the need to expand the use of such evaluations to include
"a wider range of content in order to better identify the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates."Among the multinational organization's recommendations to Mexico's education authorities, it emphasizes that our government should ensure that the selection of teachers "remains rigorous", so that those newly graduated teachers that do not meet a minimum score for the second or third time "will no longer be eligible for a permanent position."
It also noted that the government hasn't achieved the goal of subjecting all available teacher positions to competition, because now, according to the document, some are still assigned through joint committees, while others are through competition.
It further notes that the system of assigning teachers to positions within a school, which is currently based on the teacher's preferences, should be improved so that there is greater agreement between schools and teachers....The OECD recommended that schools and teachers both express their opinion on the allocation of seats, so that they may have teachers and leaders qualified to meet their school's specific needs. Spanish original