Dive Brief:
- A new study from University of Washington and RTI International finds that school and district leaders willing to undergo assessment and development of their own practices, in addition to helping the educators under their supervision do so, are also more willing to accept and utilize research that may contradict with conventional approaches, Education Week reports.
- The study, published in the American Educational Research Journal, tried to discern when district administrators would buck established practices in favor of those supported by new research, following 23 administrators throughout six districts with a variety of student population sizes.
- Leaders who were willing to shine a light on themselves rather than solely focus on their staff tended to show significant improvement after considering and following the implications of new research, and the study also found that the central office staff for districts were more successful in utilizing the results of new research if they could connect the findings to concrete goals.
Dive Insight:
Robust professional development seems likely to assist educators, as well as school and district leaders, in being open and accommodating to new research that may complicate established practices. Procuring funding for such development can always be difficult, particularly for cash-strapped districts, but Title II grant funding from the federal government has offered some form of assistance for schools and districts seeking to help educators better themselves.
However, the proposed budget from the U.S. House of Representatives for the coming fiscal year entirely eliminates Title II funding, a request made in President Donald Trump's own budget proposal. The Office of Budget and Management argued that schools could make teacher development funding requests using Title I funding, but the elimination of Title II means more programs will be competing for less available funding overall.
New Teacher Center CEO Ellen Moir said in a recent Education Dive interview that a lack of development assistance for new teachers could exacerbate the nationwide teacher shortage the profession is currently experiencing. Additionally, a lack of development may make teachers, as well as school and district leaders, more reticent to experiment with new findings from innovative research. Educators can try to advocate for the continued funding of Title II with state and federal lawmakers while simultaneously finding ways to seek out professional development among each other. Administrators who encourage the use of teacher mentors and supportive school leaders can substantively combat low retention rates.