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]]>Jessica Aue is the principal of Emerson Elementary School in Owosso, MI. She, along with her colleagues, have taken an innovative approach to addressing the intervention needs of the students at Emerson. It starts with building strong relationships between the teachers, the leaders, the parents, and the students. Read on to learn more about what Emerson Elementary School is doing to set up all their students for success.
We all know there are kids in our schools that need a little extra support to help them be successful. Unfortunately, there is no magical intervention program or one-size-fits-all solution to help them. At Emerson Elementary School, we have learned that the best way to help all students is to do everything we can to get to know them and their strengths. Once we know their strengths, we can move them forward.
We created the “Child Study Team” (CST) to accomplish the need to help all students succeed. Every month, our dedicated CST, which includes our reading and math Title I teachers, school psychologist, social worker, speech pathologist, and myself, meets with general education teachers and parents to collaborate on students who need additional support. We then use the outline below to set up a plan of success for our students and incorporate the critical importance relationships play in the process.
Child Study Team Process Outline: Steps to Set Students Up for Success
Identifying Concerns:
When a general education teacher or CST member feels that a student isn’t making expected progress, they reach out to me, the principal. I then initiate an initial packet to begin our focus on that student.
Gathering Insight:
The team collaborates to complete the packet, often conducting further assessments to understand the student’s current abilities more deeply.
Involving Families:
Once we’ve gathered enough information, we schedule a meeting and invite the student’s parents. At Emerson, we know that parents’ insights into their child’s personality, experiences, and motivations are invaluable, often revealing things that assessments cannot.
Celebrating Strengths, Addressing Concerns:
We begin our meetings by celebrating the student’s strengths. These celebrations lay a positive foundation, and they highlight that we’re here to support every child based on what they can do, not just where they may need help.
Collaborative Solutions:
Together with families, we brainstorm ways to support the student. This might involve extra intervention groups, Check-In Check-Out systems, mentoring, or even helping families address attendance barriers.
Creating an Action Plan:
We end each meeting with a clear action plan, detailing who will do what and setting a date to review progress. This step ensures accountability and gives us a chance to adjust as needed.
There may be no magical program to meet every need. The real “magic” is in our commitment to understanding each child and working together as a team—educators, parents, and support staff—to celebrate their strengths and overcome their challenges. It’s the relationships that matter most, and it’s these relationships that help our students move forward.
Jessica Aue
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]]>The post How Principals Can Lead Instruction Without Leaving Management Behind appeared first on Discovery Education.
]]>I sat in the back of a second-grade classroom, watching students being offered a choice.
They could respond in two different ways to a text that the whole class had read—a folktale depicting a family’s annual tradition from another culture. Students could write a review of the story or create a how-to essay about an activity they are familiar with. Because the students’ choices were authentic, when they embarked on their writing, every one of them was engaged.
As the school’s principal, I regularly conduct formal observations like these. No matter how good the instruction is, I always try to look for possibilities for professional growth.
In this situation, one literacy choice stood out for its quality and meaningfulness: students could describe in writing their own family traditions. This activity was rife with possibilities. What if the teacher modeled for students the steps for successful memoir writing? Could she demonstrate with a personal family tradition of her own? How might this reading/writing experience connect with social studies and maybe even a deeper study into family traditions from around the world?
During this session, I briefly stopped documenting evidence of instruction and instead started jotting down these ideas and questions on a pad of paper. There was no reason to put this information in the teacher’s observation; I didn’t intend to make these recommendations without an initial conversation about how the teacher thought the lesson went. Our follow-up discussion would take place later that day. The formal observation became the impetus for a conversation about embedding better literacy practices throughout the school day.
This example conveys how important it is that principals have the necessary time, knowledge, and experiences to be the instructional leaders in their schools. It doesn’t happen by accident.
Ensuring that the principal is a constant, effective presence in school demands three essential strategies: identifying school priorities, making classroom visits a habit, and using these visits to guide future professional learning.
Management should not be separate from instructional leadership. They are inseparable and support one another.
The Truth Behind #NoOfficeDays
Old-school thinking when it came to building leadership was clear One could tick off a principal’s duties with the ABCs: attendance, behavior, classroom observations, discipline, evaluation of staff, etc. Recently, these managerial tasks have been somewhat rejected by school leaders.
Principals are engaging in “no office days”, as evidenced by tweets of their experiences with the hashtag #noofficeday. Sometimes they will shadow a student for a day to gain a learner’s experience. Principals have even become a teacher for the day, giving one of their staff members the day to grade papers and plan for future instruction.
“There is nothing that I can do in my office that I could do in a classroom instead.” Be with kids! #noofficedays @mrsfadeji #gafesummit
— Jesse Woodward (@jessecwoodward) January 24, 2016
A3: be a part of the culture. Get out of the office. Ask the Ts, Ss, & Ps. Why I love #noofficedays embed yourself in the work #leadupchat
— Matthew Arend (@matthew_arend) February 20, 2016
These efforts by building leaders to be more present and visible in their schools are admirable. I’ve tried it myself, participating in a day of independent reading to promote literacy. The reality, however, is that principals don’t get subs.
Unless a building administrator has an assistant principal, there is no one qualified to fill in for us. The less spectacular tasks that are relegated to the office will still be there when we get back. Staff are left covering for us. Making #noofficedays a habit could breed resentment with one group while we try to be more present for another.
I suggest a better approach for being an instructional leader in our schools while still addressing the day-to-day managerial tasks: Find the right blend. This means understanding the context of our school and what needs to get done on the office end, so we are a more consistent presence in the classrooms and on building grounds.
Every school has a unique mix of class size, diversity, climate, needs, and strengths. With this information, we can align our work with a few priorities. Finding the right blend also means scheduling our days so classroom visits are habit instead of an event. A smart integration of management and leadership duties can lead to improved teaching and learning. The following strategies can be applied to any school context.
3 Ways to be an Effective Structural Leader
1. Develop a Priority Plan
We can only focus on a few goals at any one time and still be successful as school leaders. In my school, I am new to the position. That means that building trust is a priority. I’ve done a lot of listening. I’ve asked staff about their thoughts and needs, and ensured I am visible throughout the school day. Our other priority is literacy, specifically around reading comprehension and fluency. The data was clear in this area. Our leadership team has responded with facilitating monthly professional development around authentic reading and writing experiences.
The idea of aligning our actions with our priorities into a plan comes from The Together Leader by Maia Heyck-Merlin. She defines a priority plan as, “a three-month extraction from your yearly goals that names what matters most for you and your team.” I look at my priority plan regularly as I prepare for upcoming work.
Having our priorities laid out and aligned with our goals and objectives accomplishes two things. First, the faculty are clear about what we will support regarding professional development opportunities and teaching resources. Second, it is easier to say no to requests that aren’t aligned with our priorities. It’s not a subjective or personal decision, but based on a clear rationale.
For example, I was recently asked why STEM is not a focus. The response: “It seems like that’s all education talks about.” I listened and then asked this person how literacy might support the STEM areas. We ended up agreeing that if students wanted to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, they had to be literate.
2. Make Classroom Visits a Habit
To ensure a school’s priorities are put into practice, school leaders must make classroom visits a habit. If we are successful in redistributing nonessential tasks to other personnel, this can happen every day. I put classroom visits on my calendar, which is shared with my assistant. The minimum is one hour per day, getting into every classroom for at least a brief time. Staff understand that this is protected time. Any interruptions should be an emergency. (I’ve learned that the term “emergency” also requires conversation to develop a common understanding.)
Being visible in the classrooms daily serves our dual priorities of building trust and increasing effective literacy instruction. To build trust, I make sure my visits are focused on teachers’ strengths, and that I let teachers know what I am noticing. The feedback can be given verbally or in writing. I ordered a stack of professional notepads with my name and school information. I will write down what I notice is going well and leave the note in the teacher’s classroom or mailbox. In addition, I will name the effective practice using common language we have learned together during our literacy-based professional development program.
Trust relies on open communication. This goes for the parents and community as well as the teachers and students. That is why I also use Twitter to post the excellent work happening in classrooms. My school tweets usually consist of a brief description, at least one image of the learning in action, and the hashtag #PointerNation so it shows up on our district’s social media feeds. Using the same process of noticing and naming, I can now recognize and celebrate teaching and learning around literacy in an open forum. An additional benefit is all this information can be archived digitally to document and organize artifacts for our professional evaluation systems.
3. Use Instructional Walks to Reinforce Professional Learning
As trust increases and literacy instruction improves, windows open in which I can start offering feedback about teacher instruction. During my regular classroom visits, I will sometimes sit in for a longer period to write a narrative of what is currently happening. It is noticing what is happening and then naming the practice. These one-page write-ups are referred to as “instructional walks,” in which “the principal notices what’s going well in the classroom—environment, management, engagement, level of student independence, lesson content, grouping arrangements, quality of student work,” writes Regie Routman. Like the brief notes, the goal is to build on teachers’ strengths and create a relationship in which they are open to future guidance.
Because my walks are habit, I can address our collective instruction instead of conferencing with each teacher individually. The information gleaned from my daily visits is used to inform future professional learning experiences.
What if teachers are not applying the skills learned during professional development into practice? Certainly, I could note this during our formal observations for the state-mandated evaluation system. Yet I find the rubrics and evidence gathering to be limited at best—helpful for teachers in one or more areas, but unnecessary when teachers are already doing well. Formal observations and evaluations can even be detrimental to the daily classroom visit process. Trust can deteriorate when there is too much of a focus on ratings and rubrics. Also, evaluation systems are time-intensive. They used to monopolize my days, which is why I now do the bare minimum in this area.
Instead, as much as I can, I am a learner with staff and students. One way is by asking lots of questions. Whether during an instructional walk or formal observation, I will make inquiries about why teachers are doing what they are doing. For example, instead of leaving a vague, summative statement, such as “This was an effective activity, because…,” I might ask “What about this activity do you feel had the greatest impact on student learning?” Whether the learning experience was excellent or otherwise, the responsibility is now on the teacher to self-assess their instruction. Follow-up probes, such as “Why do you believe that? ,” guide teachers to cite evidence from their lessons to support their rationale. My wonderings also happen during professional development. Instead of positioning myself as an expert, I might question a belief or a statement as if I were also teaching.
Management and Leadership are Not Mutually Exclusive
During the post-observation conversation with the 2nd grade teacher, I started by asking a series of questions, starting with “How do you think the lesson went?” and “Why do you think that?” Once we affirmed that the lesson was a success, I started to probe with wonderings to unpack what was possible for the future. “Of all the choices, which literacy activity might lead to future learning?” was the inquiry that led to a professional conversation about expanding on the family traditions writing activity. The teacher suggested a personal family tradition that she could use for a writing demonstration. I held off recommending that she tie in social studies with a deeper understanding of the concept of traditions. Knowing that my priorities were in place, that my classroom visits were a habit, and that I had a team to guide faculty in professional learning, I knew that I would have more opportunities in the future.
About the Author
This column was submitted by Matt Renwick. This is Matt’s seventeenth year in public education. He started as a 5th and 6th grade teacher in a country school outside of Wisconsin Rapids, WI. After seven years of teaching, he served as a dean of students at a junior high, which developed into an assistant principal position and eventually head principal at an elementary school. Now as an elementary principal for the Mineral Point Unified School District, Matt enjoys the curriculum, instruction and assessment side of education. You can also connect with Matt on Twitter at @ReadByExample.
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]]>To run a school successfully, principals must juggle many priorities. One in particular is recognizing the importance of choosing tools that are easy to use. Why? Because these tools are essential in creating a learning environment where both teachers and students can excel without facing technical hurdles. Here are key benefits principals can expect when prioritizing ease of use for technology in education, and a few practical tips to help them launch successful implementations.
Maximize Teacher Time & Minimize Stress
When technology is easy to use, teachers can maximize instructional time by spending less time troubleshooting and more time teaching. User-friendly technology also reduces the stress associated with integrating new tools. If teachers feel confident with technology tools, they are more likely to embrace it!
Discovery Education’s Experience platform is a prime example. With its intuitive interface, teachers can easily find and integrate multimedia resources into their lessons, making learning more dynamic and engaging. DreamBox Reading is another greater example, with its straightforward setup and ease of use, teachers can manage literacy instruction effectively.
Practical Tip
Start by familiarizing teachers with technology through short training sessions. Provide them with ready-made lesson plans that show the immediate benefits without overwhelming them with new tools. Then, create a peer-to-peer mentoring system where experienced teachers can help those new to technology.
Enhance Student Engagement & Collaboration
Practical Tip
Using technology can be so much more than students passively looking at screens. Schedule regular interactive learning sessions, like virtual labs or immersive programs, to help spark curiosity and encourage active participation among students.
Easily Differentiate Learning
Practical Tip
Integrate DreamBox Math into your math curriculum by setting aside dedicated time for students to work on their personalized learning paths. Regularly review the progress reports to identify areas where students may need additional support or challenge.
Remember, the key to successful technology integration lies not only in selecting the right tools but also in providing ongoing support and professional development for teachers. Together, we can empower our educators and students to succeed in the digital age.
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]]>Schools are adapting to keep up with students’ needs, which means teachers’ work is changing rapidly. As teachers navigate updates to curriculum, staffing changes, and new policies in their schools, they need support to continue being successful. Every school’s situation is unique, but teacher retention, time management, and job-related stress are all common concerns for school employees.
To get some insight from inside the classroom, the Discovery Education team interviewed Peter Panico, a North Carolina teacher and member of the DEN Leadership Council. Read on to learn Peter’s advice for school leaders about retaining their current teaching staff, providing adequate time for teachers’ tasks, and helping teachers manage their stress levels.
Teacher Retention - What are some ways school leaders can help retain their teachers?
“In my opinion, there are three types of teachers. The first type are the ones that lead by example, following all their administrators’ expectations and instruct the curriculum with fidelity to the best of their abilities. Then there are the teachers who know and teach the curriculum with their own creative flair. Lastly, there are the educators like me who know and teach the standards with fidelity, but with unique and innovative methods to push the boundaries of student learning. It is imperative that administrators support and encourage all three types of teachers.
Provide support, structure, and explicit directions for some, encourage creativity for others, and celebrate all teachers who are making a difference. Knowing your teachers and what they need to continue their success is the key to being an effective leader. Let teachers show what they know and lead, while providing support and resources for those who ask for it.”
Time - How can school leaders give teachers adequate time for their tasks? What support is needed to help teachers accomplish what matters?
“It seems every year more non-instructional tasks are added to a teachers’ workload. From multiple documentations, data collections, lesson plans, committees, extracurricular activities, and duties. Many are out of the school leaders’ control, however the implementation can be managed in more effective ways.
Currently, documenting lessons and weekly agendas is the most time-consuming task. Completing the mandated checklists school leaders require to view weekly to ensure teachers are performing their jobs takes away precious personal time. Effective teachers know what they are doing in the classroom, let them organize their day their way and trust that they will get it done.
During planning meetings, have the teachers lead the meetings and provide support and insight when needed. Let the teachers collaborate to come up with strong lessons to best support their students. Teachers are natural leaders, and can thrive when allowed to lead as they plan.”
Teacher Stress - How can school leaders create an environment that helps teachers manage their stress levels?
“Retaining teachers has a lot to do with self-worth and accomplishment. Educators have the innate ability to help and support others, and knowing they are accomplishing that goal is a long-lasting sense of joy. A quick compliment or small note on their classroom door can make all the difference.
Administration walkthroughs and observations are a part of the job in education, however they create anxiety and self-doubt as teachers await to hear what they have done wrong, or what they need to improve upon. Instead, make these opportunities for teachers to be acknowledged for what is being done well in the classroom. Instead of “I gotcha”, make it “I get ya, I like what you are doing here.” and provide positive, constructive feedback so they continue what they are doing well.
Provide opportunities for educators to share their success with the rest of the staff during staff meetings and professional development. Let the teachers support and encourage one another by building a community of educators that want to learn, share, and connect with each other.
What has made the biggest impact as an educator was knowing that I was not alone; I was a part of a community of like-minded individuals that supported and encouraged each other. The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) gave me that community. The DEN has been a life changing experience for me as a person and as an educator. Educators loosely use the term PLC in their schools. A true PLC is built with people you can rely on and who support and assist you. That is who the DEN is to me. School leaders who create the same sense of community for staff, students, and parents have buy-in from everyone and truly generate a place where everyone involved wants to learn.”
Not every teacher’s opinion on retention, workload, or stress are going to be the same, but one great first step to understanding these challenges can be to hear from teachers themselves. Teachers are working tirelessly to keep up with the changes in education, and support from school leaders, communities, and partners can help encourage them on the journey toward school success.
Peter Panico
North Carolina Teacher and DEN Leadership Council Member
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]]>Teacher shortage has become a top issue again this year, as school districts everywhere are working harder than ever to recruit new teachers and retain the ones they currently have. The Discovery Education team interviewed Dr. Andrew Houlihan, Superintendent of North Carolina’s Union County Public Schools, to hear his thoughts on teacher recruitment, retention, and the success he’s seen so far in his district’s efforts to tackle this crisis.
What was your personal inspiration to become an educator? What continues to drive you today?
I grew up in a household of educators—my mom was a counselor and my dad was a teacher, principal, and a superintendent—so I knew that world. I also swore I would never be a superintendent.
When I was in high school, I took a class called “Peer Helpers,” where I tutored elementary kids at a Title I feeder school. I really enjoyed it, and at the same time was exploring options for college. Back then, we had the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship, which was basically a full ride to a significant number of state universities. I was awarded that scholarship, and after graduating, worked in Wake County as a second-grade teacher at a Title I school.
In fact, much of my career has focused on, and been devoted to, our neediest kids. Whether they’re in a Title I environment or not, making sure that, from an equity and access standpoint with programming, innovation, resources, or funding, that we’re doing all that we can each day to ensure that all our kids receive a high-quality education.
That’s really what drives me every single day—making a difference, making an impact, and hoping that our students matriculate, then graduate, beyond prepared for success and life.
As a leader in your district, what effects of the teacher shortage have you noticed on your students and staff?
When you’re missing individuals in classrooms due to vacancies, your principals have to be very creative on how we ensure our kids are safe and continue to receive a high-quality education.
Primarily we have seen an impact with the North Carolina K-3 class size law. By law we are required to put our teachers in our K-3 buildings first, then we allocate staff to grades 4-12. Because we’re a growing district and have vacancies, we often must combine classes or have larger class sizes. In some cases, like during the pandemic, we had to have classes in the auditorium or the cafeteria, and really expand the reach of our highly effective teachers to teach more kids.
We’ve also seen an impact with the number of available substitute teachers. We were at about a 33% fill rate earlier in the year, so we made the decision to hire a third-party staffing company in December. Now we’re at about a 75% fill rate, so we’ve made some growth there.
This is a situation where we need trusted adults who are not only certified to teach and who want to teach, but who can also keep kids safe. We’ve been fortunate and safety has been a huge priority, but that is always a big concern and one we have to recognize.
Are there teacher recruitment strategies you’ve tried, or are currently using, that made a difference in bringing new teachers into your district?
The biggest push we’ve made is building a relationship, as a superintendent and as an HR staff, with deans of colleges of education in our region and state. We need to proactively get in front of future teachers when they’re a freshman or a sophomore, before they’re deciding where they might want to go teach. There are several local universities that bring us many of our teachers when they graduate, and these relationships have been a great help to our recruitment efforts.
Another strategy I’ve used before (sort of a secret recipe) is using your state or district compensation to your advantage. North Carolina certainly has a ways to go to advance teacher pay, but we have found some success in recruiting teachers from areas where our compensation plan is stronger than their local school district or state’s salary schedules.
A change in recruitment that resulted from the pandemic is how job fairs have evolved. With the pandemic, everyone went virtual, and became used to that. As a result, we’ve noticed in the past couple of years that our enrollment for those fairs has declined. However, our virtual recruiting efforts, depending on the college or university, have brought in higher attendance numbers. That’s a pivot we’ve had to figure out and, while we haven’t figured it out completely, it’s another recruitment strategy we’re capitalizing on.
How has teacher recruitment changed over the course of your career? How has today’s educator changed compared to when you first started in education?
We have to recognize that the generation of 22-24 year-old teachers have different perspectives than the ones from when I went through college and graduated. They’ve experienced life differently, gone through a global pandemic, and are likely much more adept and adapt with technology. Recognizing the strengths of those perspectives, but also the gaps, of those who come into teaching is important.
We also must figure out how to partner better with our higher ed agencies to develop other alternatively licensed pathways through which we can recruit.
One strategy we’ve used to address this is our daily in-school tutoring program. We launched this program in our lowest performing schools before the pandemic, and we’ve seen a good pipeline of non-certified individuals that pass a series of assessments and credentials, to then become full-time teachers over the course of a year or two. The recruitment, we must recognize, doesn’t necessarily come from just a college anymore—there are other entities that we have to recruit from.
"The recruitment, we have to recognize, doesn’t necessarily come from just a college anymore—we have to find other outlets for recruiting new teachers."
Have you been working with high schools to introduce younger students to the field of education?
We announced in February a new program called Teach UCPS. It is a targeted effort for both current employees and students. Beginning in 9th grade, there are three pathways:
The first pathway is an aggressive associate degree that starts in 9th grade. Students in this program work through a course sequence with our local community college and their high school, and they graduate with a two-year associate degree at the same time as their high school diploma. Next, students take the “Gateway to Wingate Scholarship” to finish their bachelor’s degree at Wingate University for only $2,500 a year. Once they graduate from Wingate, they are hired to teach in UCPS.
The other two options are based on our Academy model, where beginning in 10th grade, students can take a series of courses and graduate from high school with 7 college credit hours. They can choose to attend our local community college for free afterwards, and are eligible to then access the same scholarship to attend Wingate University.
We’re also currently working on raising scholarship money so students can graduate from Wingate entirely debt free, and then in return, teach in UCPS for a minimum of three years in a Title I school or a minimum of four years in a non-Title I school. We’re really excited about this, and are introducing it to our 8th graders, as well as high school students, who might want to be part of the Academy model. This program is a longer-term investment—we aren’t going to see any return on it for at least 3-4 more years, but it’s an innovative strategy that we believe will have huge benefits!
Why is retaining teachers past the first five years of their career important? How does it affect student success?
There’s plenty of research that explains the benefits of how experienced teachers impact student achievement. These studies show that the longer you’re in the teaching profession, the more you grow and adapt—making you an expert. I still think that research holds true today and that there is significant value in experience. I also believe retaining new teachers hasn’t changed either: our teachers need support. They can’t work in silos or in isolation.
The need for new teacher support has become much more important as we feel the effects the pandemic has had on education. Teachers are now expected to start their first year knowing how to teach reading skills, know their content, and simply know what a 10-year veteran teacher to know. These skills are not going to be gained by new teachers without support from their school district, other teachers, and their school site leadership.
A few years ago, UCPS funded our Beginning Teacher Support Team, so we have an in-house division that does nothing but work with our teachers in their first three years. They’re coaches, not evaluators—they are purely there to observe, give feedback, and work with leadership for further support. They help create structures like partnering new teachers with mentor teachers and providing targeted professional development. Those first three years are critical, but it’s a balance of offering new teachers support while not overwhelming them.
Retention is important when it comes to student achievement and growth, but it’s also important from an economic standpoint. When teachers leave, starting over with new hires impacts a district’s budget, support plan, and slows down growth from the prior year’s work. We like to invest in our employees, but we need to see those investments pay off. The longer you stay with us, the bigger the investment and the payoff we’re all going to see!
What advice can you offer to other education leaders who are trying to retain their teachers?
I believe that teachers like to stay in a district for the same reasons today as they did 20 years ago, when research was put together on retention. Here they are, in order:
- They want to have a highly effective leader. The effectiveness and quality of the building principal makes a huge difference.
- They want professional development opportunities. They want the chance to grow in their craft and to get better.
- They want leadership opportunities. What can you do as a building leader or a district leader to ensure that your teachers are having leadership opportunities at both the district and school levels? That is incredibly important.
- They want fair compensation—leaders should be advocating at the local, state, and federal levels to increase teacher pay, supplements, and stipends. A lot of people say that teachers won’t come into the profession because of pay, and that is certainly part of the reason, but I don’t believe it’s the top reason.
One last piece of advice: we can’t have our own teachers telling our students to avoid the teaching profession. Building a culture where educators are seen as professionals, decision makers, and leaders, and encouraging our youth to enter the profession, takes hard work at the district and school levels. We continue to strive for this type of environment every day!
How are teachers in your district involved with high-level decisions? How is their feedback gathered and used?
I have stakeholder structures for feedback collection, with advisory councils that meet with my cabinet staff and me at least once a quarter. We have councils for principals, elementary school students, high school students, parents, and teachers to gather with their peers, discuss relevant topics, and share feedback.
Our teacher advisory council is made up of 53 teachers, one teacher elected from each school. When our teacher advisory council meets, they prepare and send their questions before our meeting date. During our meetings, we spend some time elaborating on those questions if there are any concerns, but most of our time is spent gathering feedback on a problem of practice, a policy, or an upcoming decision.
One recent topic was our budget process—we always ask our teachers to prioritize what we should advocate for in our budget. At our upcoming teacher advisory council meeting, we’re going to break the members up and ask for feedback on our recently launched portrait of a UCPS graduate. We’re going to dive into what these attributes look like in the classroom so we can then implement curriculum resources that support teachers in helping students build these skills.
Whether it’s policy, funding, or whatever the topic is, we always want to gather feedback from our teachers because we value their expertise—they’re the ones with boots on the ground.
Do you find that in these different advisory councils, the issues or concerns that are brought up are similar?
Yes! It’s interesting to hear a 5-year-old student and an 18-year-old student advocate for the same things. We have a common topic that our cabinet selects, and we ask all the councils the same questions. Next, we figure out the trends and triangulate the data across these different groups to identify the key points. More times than not, we get a lot of overlap!
How could local and state education leaders help your teacher retention and recruitment efforts?
There are three major areas that come to mind:
- We need to figure out a way to better incentivize our youth to enter the teaching profession. We’re doing all we can to innovate locally, but having some statewide or federal assistance would certainly help school districts create a more robust pipeline of new educators.
- Going back to the compensation discussion, we need to pay our teachers a professional wage, not just a livable wage. Teacher salaries are often decided by leaders at the state level, so they can make a worthy change there.
- From a policy standpoint, any additional flexibility we can have with teacher licensure would be helpful. North Carolina charter schools have a tremendous amount of flexibility with that, and in the public school setting we do not. In my opinion, that same licensure flexibility should be offered to all our schools.
Those are some of the top ways our state leaders can help us, but we’re all proud of the work we’ve done at UCPS. We’ve historically been the highest performing large district in the state, and we work hard every day at maintaining that high performance. At the end of the day, we need to recruit and retain as many people as possible in this profession, which takes hard work—a lot of marketing, education, and creativity.
When it comes to recruiting and retaining teachers, school districts are finding ways to get creative and keep up with the challenges that pop up along the way. While the details of each school district’s staffing concerns will be unique, learning the steps other educational leaders are taking to tackle teacher recruitment and retention can help refresh strategies. The bottom line for finding teachers comes down to providing a high-quality education for students, something every student deserves!
Andrew G. Houlihan, Ed. D
Dr. Andrew G. Houlihan is currently in his seventh year as Superintendent of the Union County Public Schools. In 2022, Education Week recognized him as a national Leader to Learn From for his strategic leadership, he was named the 2022 Superintendent of the Year for the Southwest Regional Alliance (Region 6), and he was a finalist for the North Carolina State Superintendent of the Year. Prior to joining UCPS, he served in numerous roles within the Houston Independent School District and served in various leadership roles in the Austin Independent School District.
Union County Public Schools is the sixth-largest public school system in North Carolina. It serves approximately 41,000 students at 53 schools and has approximately 5,000 staff members. Known as a leader in academics, UCPS offers a wide variety of coursework to its students, with a long-term goal of ensuring all students are equipped to succeed in college, career and life.
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]]>Numerous academic studies have shown that high-quality teachers are critical for student, school, and district success. Recruiting, training, and retaining effective educators is perhaps the most impactful contribution school and district leaders can make toward long-term student growth and achievement. Unfortunately, schools and districts around the country are grappling with unprecedented teacher shortages and high rates of educator turnover. The National Education Association recently reported that job openings are outpacing educator hires, with a minimum of 314,000 teaching positions currently unfilled or filled by noncertified teachers across the nation. This represents an astounding one out of ten teaching positions being vacant or without a certified teacher. While this crisis has impacted some districts more than others, this problem is affecting districts everywhere.
During our recent webinar, Combating Teacher Shortages: Strategies for Classroom Balance and Learning Success, a panel of school and district leaders shared best practices and strategies for preventing educator burnout and increasing teacher retention rates. Angie Reeves, Principal of Sedge Garden Elementary, Sean Gaillard, Principal of Appalachian State University Academy at Middle Fork, and Jenny Alyn Key, Curriculum and Instruction Director at Yadkin County Schools shared insights from their experiences nurturing supportive work and learning environments for educators.
Here are seven key takeaways from this important and timely conversation:
1. Build a culture that honors teachers’ work and reinforces their critical role in student lives.
All of the panelists noted that, in order to address current teacher shortages and promote higher retention rates, it’s essential to create a transcendent culture where educators feel valued. Gaillard explained that this needs to go beyond superficial declarations or performative acts of teacher support. “It can’t just be confetti and jeans days” but, instead, we need to do “something in a real, intentional way because teachers choose us—choose our school to work at” when they could be choosing to practice their craft elsewhere or use their time differently.
Educators put in an incredible amount of time and energy every day because they care deeply about students. However, they often do not get positive feedback or realize the fruits of their labor. It’s important to create mechanisms for teachers to feel connected to their work and to see the impact they have on students. Key shared that she reinforces the value teachers contribute to student success by specifying a teacher’s decision or action and connecting it to a positive outcome for the students.
2. Involve teachers in decision-making.
During the webinar, the expert panel agreed that it’s important to include teachers’ voices in decision-making. Doing so honors the contributions of teachers and ensures that decisions consider their unique and insightful perspectives. Gaillard described his experience, “Any decision that we make is often best when we have many voices and many hands at the table building consensus.” He explained that his school has design teams rather than committees, because administrators want to ensure that, “everyone feels they have a hand in the designing, creating, and decision-making processes.” Key concurred and noted that, as a guiding principle, her district “[tries] to build voice and choice as often as we can, getting feedback from teachers.” They regularly ask teachers, “What do you need?” and then find ways to respond to those needs. This approach ensures that teachers feel included, especially because it will uplift those working with students each and every day.
3. Specifically, teachers should help inform any resources selection process.
Empowering teachers to share their experiences and insights to guide tool and resource selection communicates that administrators respect those experiences. Reeves explained she firmly believes that teachers “need to be a part of any large budget decision that we make.” She continued, “I don’t like making decisions in a vacuum . . . Even though I try to see it from a teacher’s perspective, I don’t always get that right.” To build this inclusion into the decision-making process, she has created a budget team at her school with teachers from different grade levels and specialties so that they can effectively consider a wide diversity of teacher input in budget decisions.
Key strongly agreed with this approach. She shared that her district involves teachers in every step of resource evaluation and selection, and as a result, they have seen tremendous benefit. “What we have found is that their buy-in has been so much greater” than when they were left out of the selection process. Teachers are more likely to feel invested in program implementation when they are part of discussions about the program’s potential to drive student learning.
4. Free up capacity for new program implementation.
Gaillard described the overall challenging context of the current state of education. “School as we know it, education as we know it, has shifted dramatically. The needs of students have intensified, and the demands on teachers have also intensified.” Because of this, schools and districts persistently ask teachers to do more. Key added, “We must be mindful of capacity issues in what we are asking of our teachers. As we keep adding to teachers’ plates, we need to be evaluating what is having the biggest impact. And whatever those things are, we must provide the time so teachers can actually process, learn, and grow together, avoiding that burnout before it gets here.”
The panelists agreed that technology can be an effective resource to support teachers, build capacity, and enrich what they do. But site and district leaders must be careful to identify high-quality tools that are easy to use and implement. Key cited that her district has found success using digital adaptive resources to provide student interventions or respond to the diversity of student needs within a classroom. She explained, “We have worked really hard to find products that support [intervention] needs” as well as small group instruction, in a way that seamlessly complements classroom instruction and educator expertise. In adopting these digital resources, her district explicitly communicated to teachers that these resources are meant to support their efforts, not replace them. “We were transparent and communicated clearly with our teachers. We want you to use the technology, but you are the expert, you are the magic.”
5. Create time for meaningful, relevant professional development and growth.
When teachers feel that their work is truly impacting students and that there is room for learning and professional growth, they’re more likely to stay. The panel described the importance of professional development for all teachers to ensure that they have the necessary tools and support to be effective and expand their expertise. Gaillard succinctly described that “professional development has to be part of any conversation” about teacher retention. The group discussed how important it is to fit this professional development into their school schedule in a way that works for teachers. In other words, professional learning cannot feel like something teachers have to squeeze in or displace other important planning time. They noted the value of setting aside professional development days regularly to create this space for learning and collaboration with other educators.
6. Elevate and encourage teacher leadership.
Finding ways to contribute to the broader community of educators is a powerful spark to reignite enthusiasm and energy in the classroom and beyond. Gaillard pointed out that “Teacher leadership . . . is one of the keys to retention.” He called on teams to “really look at how you are distributing your leadership” and noted that “empowering your teacher leaders, tapping into the strengths-based leadership, and doing some things to make [teachers] feel empowered” encourages teachers to remain in the profession. He explained that not every teacher wants to become an administrator, but that there are other pathways for experienced teachers to lead including lead teacher roles, curriculum coaches, and grade-span leaders.
The panelists also discussed the value of creating smaller scale opportunities for teachers to share best practices with colleagues. Gaillard mentioned implementing instant PD opportunities where any teacher who wants to share an idea can do so during dedicated 15-minute slots. Key agreed, noting that “collective teacher efficacy has proven to be so beneficial. If we can use each other’s strengths to build a better impact, what better way to grow professionally.”
7. Communicate—with words and actions—that you care about teachers as professionals and humans.
During the conversation, the educational leaders discussed strategies for caring for their teachers and creating a community based on respect to ensure educator wellbeing. Reeves described the goal simply, “Teachers have to know we care about them as people.” She went on to talk about the importance of balance and recognizing that teachers have full lives outside of school. As a principal, she guides teachers to set boundaries between their time at school and at home. She tells her teachers, “Have a time where you shut off at night. Make sure you are spending time with your family, away from that phone, away from that email. It can wait until tomorrow morning. It can wait until Monday morning.” She tries to avoid sending them emails over the weekend, explaining that “I really want them to disconnect. If you’re on the go all the time, you are going to burn out quickly.”
Gaillard added, “Teachers have to see and feel that we believe in them . . . Just as we encourage our teachers to believe in the kids, we have to be visible and visceral in our belief in our teachers as well.” The panel went on to list additional ways to honor the work of teachers and to let them know that they are important, effective, and needed. They discussed leaving handwritten notes in teacher mailboxes, writing a quick affirmation on a teacher’s white board, making phone calls to teachers and their families acknowledging their hard work, and even mailing a picture and note to teachers’ families outlining the impact their work has on students.
Gaillard pointed out that these seemingly small gestures have a major impact on how educators feel about their job and role in the school community. “I find that those kinds of small simple [acts] go a long way in building that culture of a sense of belonging for teachers.” This kind of culture of connection and respect sets the foundation for embedded practices that yield high rates of teacher retention and collective investment in long-term educator and student success.
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