Achieving Equity by Focusing on Right Things: Leadership and Teacher Retention

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Achieving Equity by Focusing on Right Things
Leadership and Teacher Retention
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Equity Goals

• Ensure that poor and minority children are not
  taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or
  mis-assigned teachers at higher rates than are
  other children.
• Ensure that children in low-performing schools in
  all geographic regions of the state have access
  to experienced, qualified, and appropriately
  assigned teachers on an equitable basis.

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Intent of Equity Focus

• Ensure that every student has teachers able to
  provide quality instruction.
• We can move from intent to reality by beginning
  with the minimum
• Certified by the PSC
• Major or concentration in subject/content area
• GACE
• Appropriately assigned to teach

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Focusing on the Minimum

• Achieving equity by focusing only on the minimum
  is not adequate.
• Meeting minimum standards is only a starting
  point.
• School and district leaders who do the right
  things can move schools from meeting minimum
  teacher quality standards to high standards.

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Achieving Equity through Leadership

• Leaders doing right things supports a
  high-quality teacher workforce that also does
  right things.
• Leaders must have the knowledge and skills to do
  right things.
• Leaders must hire, support, and retain
  high-quality teachers.
• Leaders must work with all teachers to help them
  become high-quality teachers.

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Beyond the Minimum

• Students and parents should expect
• Teachers who have advanced knowledge and skills
• Teachers who are experienced
• Teachers who continue to learn
• Teachers who have a high degree of self-efficacy
• Teachers who value collaborative work

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Beyond the Minimum

• Teachers who
• Teach rather than cover the curriculum
• Value collaborative work deprivatizing practice
  by working with other teachers
• Value professional learning
• Partner with parents
• Are child-centered rather than subject
  matter-centered or procedure-centered

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Leaders Who Do Right Things

• Instructional leaders rather than managers of
  facilities
• Collaborative
• Value distributed leadership
• Understand teachers from hiring to retirement
• Culture builders who value professional learning

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Leaders Must Create the Right Focus

• The right focus isnt about order or discipline
  nor is it about public relations or winning
  football games. Instead, it is about children
  excited about learning and teachers who
  desperately want to teach and teach well.
• The right focus isnt about test scores it is
  about learning that is then measured by test
  scores.

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Beyond Minimums Right School Culture

• Vision and Mission about teaching and learning
  beyond simply words on paper.
• Every child can learn and achieve at high levels
  and we all share responsibility for making this
  happen.
• The organizing metaphor for school should be
  learning community rather than factory or
  bureaucracy

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Beyond Minimums Right Priorities

• Every action taken in schools should be based on
  the following taxonomy
• First, is this action in the best interest of
  children now and in the future?
• Second, is this action in the best interest of
  teachers now and in the future?
• Third, is this action in the best interest of
  parents now and in the future?
• Finally, after affirmatively answering the first
  three questions, is this action in the best
  interest of school and district leaders?

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Right Leadership Identifies Right Partners

• Parents who are included in the education
  equation and equipped to do their part
• Universities who value real partnerships with
  schools and school systems
• Communities that understand the importance of
  strong schools and a highly educated workforce

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Right Leadership Understands Right Models

• In filling teaching positions, the old model
  emphasizes student enrollments and teacher
  retirements Focus becomes teacher shortages.
• The new model adds a factor - organizational
  conditions that cause teachers to leave Focus
  becomes teacher turnover.

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Right Leadership

• Leaders who understand the impact the school has
  on its teachers realize that we often treat the
  symptom (teacher shortage) as if it is the
  problem.
• When these leaders begin to treat the real
  problem (teacher turnover), turnover declines and
  shortages are less likely.

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Right Leadership

• Good leaders understand and focus on reducing the
  loss of new teachers
• Year 1 12 leave
• Year 2 19 have left
• Year 3 28 have left
• Year 4 34 have left
• Year 5 46 have left
• Richard
  Ingersoll, 2008

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Right Leadership

• What can we do to resolve the problem of new
  teachers leaving? Have a 4-minute table
  discussion about this question.

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Addressing Why Teachers Leave
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Annual Teacher Turnover ()

• High vs. Low Poverty 15.2 vs.10.5
• Large vs. Small 11.2 vs. 11.8
• Private vs. Public 18.9 vs. 12.4
• Rural 11.2
• Suburban 13
• Urban 14
• -Richard Ingersoll, 2001

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Right Leadership Teacher Retention

• Many teachers move or leave because of
  dissatisfaction with working conditions
• Inadequate administrative support
• Student discipline problems
• Lack of faculty influence
• Inadequate time to prep
• Intrusions on teaching time
• Lack of competence of colleagues

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Ingersolls Work

• If you want to look in detail at Richard
  Ingersolls work, go to this website
• http//www.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/ingersoll.html

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Importance of Leadership

• Leadership is almost twice as likely to be listed
  as a reason for staying in a school as four other
  factors (resources, time, empowerment, and
  professional learning) examined by a Bellsouth
  Quality Learning and Teacher Environments study.

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Beyond Minimums Right Leaders

• Instructional leaders rather than managers of
  facilities
• Collaborative
• Value distributive leadership
• Understand teachers from hiring to retirement
• Culture builders who value professional learning

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Focus on Equity

• Getting beyond the minimum to make a real
  difference in how we address every child requires
• Right Leadership Key Ingredient
• Right Teachers
• Right Priorities
• Right Partners
• Right School Culture

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Kids Get Hurt When

• We continue to focus on symptoms rather than
  problems addressing the teacher shortage is
  important solving the teacher turnover problem
  is even more important.
• Where has your district focused on the symptom
  or the problem?

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Kids Get Hurt When

• We focus on doing things the right way without
  questioning whether or not they are the right
  things.

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Kids Get Hurt When

• We forget who is important in a school
• Kids first
• Then teachers
• Parents next
• Leaders last

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Kids Get Hurt When

• Leaders at the school and system level dont have
  the courage to address the tough issues that
  stand in the way of all children learning and
  achieving at high levels.

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What Will We Tell the Children?

• Ron Edmonds, the father of the school
  effectiveness movement, in the 1980s suggested
  that we know everything that we need to know to
  improve schools. We choose not to do these
  things.
• Pogo, a famous opossum from the newspaper comics
  said he had seen the enemy and the enemy is us.
  We choose to place the blame elsewhere, usually
  on the child, the parent, or the community.

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My Commitment

• What am I willing to commit to so that as I look
  into the face of each child in my community I can
  say to that child I have done my best to assure
  equitable opportunities for you so that your
  opportunities are just as great as those of
  others?

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Contact Information

• David M. Hill, Ph.D.
• Division Director, Educator Preparation
• Georgia Professional Standards Commission
• david.hill_at_gapsc.com
• 404-232-2640