Give Credit Where It’s Due. Design Clear and Achievable Career Paths for Teachers.
We want our teachers to have clarity on their future development by providing equal opportunity to set and achieve their goals.
Problem
Teachers need more transparency and resources to successfully advance their careers.
Our Plan
Our teachers are strong voices in our society, and school systems must do more to trust and empower them. Give our educators more autonomy and improve their targeted development to reduce teacher turnover.
Highlight the value of transferable skills teachers have by frequently using repeatable cross-industry language in teacher preparation programs, school system job descriptions, resumes, and interviewing pre-hiring. This helps our teachers articulate their strengths in the field and provides better mobility between industries.
Enhance feedback between teachers and administrators using school climate surveys and remove barriers to voicing their concerns. Hold schools accountable for teacher feedback.
Reconsider third-party rubrics used to evaluate and certify teachers and address bias in evaluation. Focus instead on in-person field evaluations rooted in self-reflection.
Create an opt-in system for teachers to receive observational, in-person field evaluations from highly qualified teachers in real-time. Hire highly qualified staff development teachers whose entire focus is on informal and formal observations of every school.
Reflect qualitative aspects of successful teaching and learning by changing the way that we measure student growth.
Elevate the voices of new teachers and recognize their best practices. Incentivize effective teaching no matter how long someone has been a teacher. Give credit where it’s due!
This Matters
Educators are required to adapt and constantly develop their practice. Given the transient nature of education, we must highlight the transferable and transformative skills teachers have. We must equalize professional trajectory opportunities for our educators so they too are empowered to advance in their field.
When we put our resources into emphasizing and promoting the high-quality skills and knowledge that teachers possess, our students, the future of our society, will reap the benefits.