Build a Coalition

To build collective political will, stakeholders and key policy influencers must develop a shared awareness and understanding of issues surrounding equitable access in your state context. To generate a forceful coalition capable of taking meaningful action, stakeholders directly affected by issues of equitable access need opportunities to engage with key policy influencers in multiple policy areas. Drawing in policy influencers from multiple departments and levels of government helps break down silos that perpetuate inaction on issues of equitable access. Creating networks focused on equity is one approach for setting up opportunities for stakeholders and policy influencers to agree on meaningful action, establish priorities, and strategically plan together.

What Can I Do to Support Equitable Access to Great Teachers and Leaders?

Strategies to Consider

  • Disseminate Information on Local Inequities

    Create and disseminate a fact sheet or infographic that describes inequities in your region or state.

  • Collaborate With Regional Support Centers

    Collaborate with your regional center, regional equity assistance center, regional educational laboratory, or the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders on these strategies. 

  • Consider All Stakeholder Perspectives

    Listen to a variety of perspectives on this issue, including the concerns of stakeholders who disagree that inequitable access to great teachers and leaders must be addressed, and consider the validity of their concerns. 

  • Convene Stakeholder Meeting

    Hold a stakeholder meeting to lay the foundation for and discuss priorities in developing actionable strategies and timelines to address equitable access to great teachers and leaders. 

  • Convene Stakeholders in Equity Workgroup

    As you set priorities, select state partners to invite to participate in your efforts to tackle equitable access to great teachers and leaders in your state. Consider representatives from key groups, including teachers, principals, unions, community members, parents, state education agency staff, educator preparation programs, and district administrators. Ask departmental stakeholders, including division leaders and their deputies, to participate in an equity workgroup. 

  • Highlight Best Practices

    In the states with which you work, inquire about school districts that are leaders in equity issues, and highlight and celebrate their work. 

  • Hold Annual Stakeholder Meetings to Review Equitable Access Issues

    With program faculty and staff, share and discuss annually collected data on the placement, retention, and performance of the program’s graduates, especially those graduates placed in high-need schools. If equitable access problems are evident from the review, determine the sources of high attrition and poor performance. 

  • Host a Conference on Equitable Access to Great Teachers and Leaders

    Plan and host a conference on equitable access to great teachers and leaders.

  • Integrate Equitable Access

    Integrate a focus on equitable access to great teachers and leaders, emphasizing the root causes, and potential solutions into your educator preparation program curriculum. 

  • Leverage Communication Channels

    Leverage support through effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders for successful completion of the plan. 

  • Stay Informed

    Join the conversation at the Great Teachers and Leaders for All Learners blog! 

Resources

  • Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center Webinars

    The Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center—in partnership with the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality—hosted two webinars for state officials in Tennessee who were committed to addressing the state’s equity problem. The first webinar, which took place in March 2007, highlighted strategies used by other states and the challenges and opportunities they encountered in collecting and analyzing equity data. The Tennessee Department of Education’s study of equity also was discussed. A follow-up webinar was held a month later. Two officials from the Tennessee Department of Education lead the webinar and released the results of a new study on equity.

    http://sites.edvantia.org/publications/arccwebinar/EqDist_032007.html

  • Ensuring Equitable Access to Great Teachers and Leaders

    Summary

    Under the federal Excellent Educators for All initiative, state education agencies—in consultation with district leadership, school leadership, teachers, parents, and community stakeholders—are charged with developing comprehensive statewide educator equity plans to ensure that all students have equitable access to effective educators.

    This webinar describes:

    • An overview of the Excellent Educators for All initiative
    • Information on how the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) and its partners can support regional centers and state education agencies in the design of their equity plans
    • An introduction to resources for equitable access planning and engaging stakeholders in the process
    • Insights from Laurel Horn, an award-winning teacher and GTL Center Practitioner Advisory Group member, on effective ways to engage teachers

    Webinar

     

  • Ohio Office of Educator Equity

    The Office of Educator Equity was created within the Center for the Teaching Profession at the Ohio Department of Education to do the following:

    • Monitor implementation and continued progress of the 68 strategies contained in Ohio’s 2006 Teacher Equity Plan.
    • Design a methodology to successfully complete the new strategies.
    • Ensure that all 68 strategies are successful and ongoing and that effective programs, initiatives, and incentives positively influence student achievement.
    • Leverage support through effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders for successful completion of the plan.
    http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Teaching/Educator-Equity

  • TELL Ohio

    The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the Office of Educator Equity and Talent (OET), in partnership with the New Teacher Center, piloted a three-year program called TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning) to provide educators in Ohio with data, tools, and support to facilitate school improvement planning and address issues of inequitable access. As a part of the initiative, Ohio is doing the following:

    • Provides data on teaching conditions in hard-to-staff Ohio schools by implementing a working conditions survey. This survey focuses on issues such as time, facilities, resources, leadership, instructional practices, student behavior management, community support, professional development, and new teacher support.
    • Shares results through an online dashboard and provides reports with benchmarking data for educator consideration.
    • Provides schools and districts with direct technical assistance to use the survey results and research best practices.

    In a collaborative effort among stakeholders, ODE, the Ohio Education Association, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers recently announced the 2013 TELL Initiative, which is part of the Race to the Top initiative. It begins with an online, anonymous school survey and is an ongoing process for using the results from the survey in annual school improvement planning. TELL Ohio will provide educators in the state’s Race to the Top schools with data, tools, and direct support to facilitate school improvement planning and equitable access.

    http://www.tellohio.org/