Dive Brief:
- The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future has put out a call to action for schools to shift to a new system that gives teachers more agency and creates shared accountability.
- According to eSchool News, teachers in this new world will need content as well as pedagogical knowledge, social emotional expertise for building classroom relationships, and a commitment to self-improvement and collaboration that administrators return with high-quality professional learning.
- The report also outlines modern roles for teachers who want more responsibility but don’t want to leave the classroom, and it recommends state support for new teacher mentoring as well as responsive, effective professional learning.
Dive Insight:
The teaching profession is arguably at a low point when it comes to prestige. Teachers have been blamed for failing schools, they have been forced to implement top-down reform strategies, and they have watched the pay gap between themselves and other professions grow. Significantly fewer students are choosing teaching careers now than just five years ago, and at a time when the student population is more diverse than ever, the racial diversity among the teaching ranks is stuck in place.
Some schools and districts are recognizing the expertise their teachers bring to the table and including them in the development of improvement strategies, bringing a level of professionalization back to the position. This has consistently improved job satisfaction rates as well as teacher retention. Unfortunately, this takes a significant managerial shift and a commitment to shared leadership that some administrators are not willing to take on.