State Education Leader

Determine the success of current efforts to provide inservice support for educator preparation program graduates. 

Examine hiring practices and other human resource policies to ensure vacancies are filled with excellent educators. Ensure that late hiring timelines are not a barrier to recruitment. 

Survey effective teachers and leaders currently working in high-poverty schools to determine what type of financial compensation may influence their decisions to move to or stay in high-need schools. It may be that financial incentives alone do not play a large role in teacher and leader recruitment and retention and therefore should be combined with other efforts to increase access to great teachers and leaders. 

Examine incentive-based programs to encourage teachers to stay in or move to high-need schools. 

If teacher turnover at some of the partner schools is high, work with the schools to collect data that may point to possible sources of the problem and suggest potential solutions (e.g., teacher satisfaction surveys and school climate indicators).

Strengthen partner school and district capacity by providing unique professional development opportunities for partner school teachers and administrators, assisting schools and districts in collecting useful data, and working with them to undertake valuable research and evaluation projects. 

Strengthen educator preparation program clinical training by:

• Working together with partner schools to ensure that the program provides the best clinical experience possible for program candidates.
• Providing clinical opportunities that expose candidates to learners with diverse backgrounds and needs.
• Ensuring that the program’s partner schools reflect the culture and the student demographics of the schools in which the majority of the program’s graduates are initially placed. 

Assess the effectiveness of educator preparation program partnerships with K–12 districts and schools, and jointly develop strategies to strengthen the partnerships for mutual benefit, including a stronger teacher recruitment and professional development pipeline between the program and partner local education agencies. 

Align educator licensing and certification systems to the latest research on effective teaching and leading. For example, instead of accepting degrees and coursework to satisfy professional development requirements, consider changing to a focus on job-embedded professional development activities and performance evaluation. Research demonstrates that, unlike degrees and coursework, job-embedded professional development and performance evaluation have a measurable impact on teacher learning and student achievement. 

Support local innovation related to recruitment and retention incentives (e.g., housing incentives and local market-based salary bonuses) as well as career advancement opportunities that encourage effective teachers to stay in hard-to-staff schools.