In much of the country, teaching is still a solo activity, but some states are beginning to explore policies that could encourage better collaboration and creative staffing.
That鈥檚 the conclusion of a released today by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a policy and research group. It found that 鈥渟trategic staffing"鈥攎odels that incorporate more team teaching or feature different instructional roles for educators鈥攈ave started gaining traction across the country.
Twenty-three states now allow districts to apply for waivers to pilot strategic staffing models, and eight offer additional pay for teachers who take on leadership roles in these systems.
Some of the most common strategic staffing models include:
- Teams of four to five teachers collectively teaching groups of 50 to 150 students.
- Having highly effective teachers co-teaching and mentoring other teachers鈥攐ften for additional pay.
- Student or resident teachers taking on more classroom responsibilities while working under a supervising teacher.
But many states鈥� policies, NCTQ found, make it more difficult for districts to establish career progressions for teachers that keep them in the classroom while still taking on leadership roles.
For example, 11 states require teachers to be individually evaluated without taking into account team duties, and 13 states bar teachers from formally observing their colleagues for evaluations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to reimagine the teaching role by tapping into the expertise and the possibility that multiple roles at multiple stages of the teaching career could provide,鈥� said NCTQ President Heather Peske. 鈥淭he focus is on really trying to use all the available resources and all the available personnel to support students, to strengthen student outcomes, and also to improve the efficacy of teachers themselves.鈥�
Teachers are much more likely to leave their profession than lawyers or engineers, or even other 鈥渉elping鈥� professions like nurses or police officers. While there is still limited evidence on the most effective models for collaborative teaching, the flexible staffing approaches can provide more stability for students, said Brent Maddin, the executive director of the at Arizona State University, which is working with more than 150 school districts nationwide to develop and implement new staffing models.
鈥淐hurn is a serious problem we need to solve, but I don鈥檛 know that we need to solve it for every single educator being on the job for 30 years鈥攂ecause I think those days are probably gone,鈥� Maddin said. 鈥淲e need to build a workforce that confronts the brutal reality that, yeah, we are going to have some number of people that are constantly moving through the workforce. And right now, the one-teacher, one-classroom model doesn鈥檛 do that.鈥�
NEWI partner schools have developed everything from an elementary school where teachers lead to a junior high school where teacher teams are led by .
Teachers in the staffing pilots are able to develop more specialized responsibilities within the team, such as managing classroom technology or communicating with parents. 鈥淭hose are two very different skill sets. Right now we ask every educator to be equally great at all of the things; in no other profession do we really do this,鈥� Maddin said.
Teacher schedules and duties by necessity involve their contracts, and Maddin said that teachers鈥� unions have been generally receptive to developing staffing structures, as long as teachers were part of their development and the models improved working conditions.
鈥淲hen educators are presented with the opportunity to lean into their strengths and things that they鈥檙e passionate about, they leap at that opportunity,鈥� he said."It doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that there鈥檚 less work, but it often does mean that they鈥檙e doing fewer things more deeply.鈥�
Peske agreed. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an important distinction,鈥� she said, 鈥渂etween add-on responsibilities for teachers鈥攎entoring is often one of those鈥攁nd schools where teachers are actually taking on roles and responsibilities that are cohesively embedded in the school day, working in collaboration as part of a team with other teachers.鈥�
For example, the independent district in Texas, working with Public Impact, a Carrboro, N.C.-based nonprofit education reform group, created teams of teachers, paraprofessionals, and teacher residents led by a 鈥渕ulti-classroom leader.鈥�
On a typical day, this lead educator鈥攃hosen based on a record of high student growth鈥攎ight teach students in the morning and then provide intensive support and professional development to other team educators in the afternoon.
