How do the Highest Achieving School Systems in the world develop their teachers?

Discover how the world's top school systems build teaching quality, and how Raffles Girls' School contributed to this global study.

Last updated 23 July 2026

HOW DO THE HIGHEST-ACHIEVING SCHOOL SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD DEVELOP THEIR TEACHERS?

Empowered Educators: How High-Performing Systems Shape Teaching Quality Around the World is part of a landmark, international comparative study of teacher and teaching quality in the world’s top-performing education systems.

With support from the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Ford Foundation, one of the world’s preeminent education researchers, Linda Darling-Hammond, drew together a global team of education researchers, including researchers from Singapore’s National Institute of Education, in the three-year study to investigate how a growing number of countries have remodeled their education systems to deliver an education built for the 21st century, producing higher achievement and greater equity than the United States (National Centre on Education and the Economy, 2017).

The researchers investigated seven jurisdictions across four continents. Their findings reveal that countries with high-performing school systems are committed to professionalizing teaching as an occupation, creating and managing a system of policies and practices that provide opportunities for teachers to learn sophisticated practices and to continue to improve.

Raffles Girls’ School is honored to contribute to this exciting research as one of the schools representing Singapore. PeRL team members, Mr. Azahar M Noor, Teacher-Specialist, and Mrs. Mary George Cheriyan, Deputy Principal, together with the Principal, Mrs Poh Mun See and another then-Deputy Principal, Mrs Shirley Tan, were involved as participants in this study. Click here (opens in new tab) to find out more details on the study and its findings. Access these links below for video interviews with Mr. Azahar and Mrs. Cheriyan on their experiences with the RGS Curriculum and Professional Development:

Interview with Mr. Azahar M Noor on Student Feedback (opens in new tab)

Interview with Mrs. Mary George Cheriyan on Professional Learning (opens in new tab)

Interview with Mr. Azahar M Noor on Student Research (opens in new tab)

Interview with Mr. Azahar M Noor on his Professional Learning Opportunities (opens in new tab)