Strategies for Retaining Skilled Educators: Providing Essential Support, Detailed
In an effort to improve education in high-need schools, policymakers, educators, and researchers are focusing on creating the right conditions for teacher growth and retention. According to the Learning Policy Institute and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these conditions include structured career pathways, meaningful professional development, financial incentives, strong leadership, and collaborative school cultures, as well as addressing financial barriers such as student loan debt.
Linda Darling-Hammond, the founding president and chief knowledge officer at the Learning Policy Institute, emphasizes the importance of investing in high-quality teacher preparation and mentoring programs, particularly for high-need schools. This investment is crucial in ensuring protected planning time and consistent teaching assignments, and in training principals as instructional leaders who can build strong school cultures that support teacher development and retention.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute's research supports this by illustrating the effectiveness of teacher career pathways programs. For instance, NYC’s Teacher Career Pathways and Denver’s Teacher Leadership Initiative have shown improvement in teacher retention. Key features of these programs include written career ladders tied to student learning impact, multiple advancement pathways, leadership roles with decision-making power, and ongoing professional development.
Research also indicates that teachers generally improve significantly during their first five years, with continued, albeit slower, improvement observed well into years 6 through 15. However, schools serving large populations of low-income Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be staffed primarily by early career teachers. This trend, coupled with a higher rate of early career teachers leaving after just a few years, leads to a lack of a stable, experienced workforce in high-need schools.
To combat this, state and district leaders should consider meaningful financial incentives and other supports to retain experienced teachers in high-need classrooms. Additionally, teachers improve faster when they work alongside more experienced peers, making schools with strong leadership, collaboration opportunities, and a culture of professional trust more likely to experience greater gains in teacher retention over time.
In the wake of the pandemic, the right support can help teachers continue to improve their skills, which is crucial for learning recovery. By fostering continued teacher growth and retention in high-need schools, we can create stable and growth-oriented conditions that research indicates are crucial for retaining effective teachers in the most challenging school settings.
Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and an executive editor of Education Next, underscores the importance of these efforts. "By investing in high-quality teacher preparation and mentoring programs, providing meaningful professional development, fostering strong leadership and collaborative school cultures, and addressing financial barriers, we can not only retain effective teachers but also improve education outcomes for students in high-need schools," he said.
- To enhance education in high-need schools, policymakers should focus on investment in high-quality teacher preparation and mentoring programs, as advocated by Linda Darling-Hammond.
- Teacher career pathways programs, such as NYC’s Teacher Career Pathways and Denver’s Teacher Leadership Initiative, are effective in improving teacher retention by offering written career ladders, multiple advancement pathways, and ongoing professional development.
- To combat the trend of high-need schools being staffed primarily by early career teachers, leading to a lack of a stable workforce, state and district leaders should consider meaningful financial incentives and school cultures that promote collaboration and professional trust, as these conditions are crucial for teacher retention and improvement.
