Teacher Recruitment & Retention: Chapter 5

Details:

• Resource Type: Playbook
• Estimated time: 2 team sessions

Purpose:

Engage with this resource in order to reflect on specific retention levers to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities in your own approach.

This resource contains chapter 5 from a playbook written by Insight Education Group (TSL 2017, 2020) and builds foundational knowledge of why and how teacher retention practices must change. Although its primary audience is school districts, the resource may be adapted by universities and other organizations to inform their strategic partnerships with schools and to consider how they can shape new educators’ understanding of how to select a supportive school environment in which to work.

Directions:

1. Share Retention Success: What Makes Effective Teachers Stay (Chapter 5) with your team.
2. If you are a school district, convene your team to explore the first two levers. Use the reflection questions at the end of each sub-section to guide your teams’ discussion about how aligned your retention practices are to each lever. Note any follow-up actions your team may wish to take.
3. If you are an educator preparation program or educational organization that supports pre-service teachers, convene your team to explore Levers 3 and 5.
   1. Discuss if and/or how you are developing teacher candidates’ collaborative learning and leadership skills.
   2. Discuss if and/or how you are developing teacher candidates’ ability to ask about and identify indicators of supportive work cultures.
   3. Note any follow-up actions your team may wish to take.

1. Select additional levers that are most relevant to your team and schedule an additional team meeting to continue your analysis. As a team, identify steps you can take to integrate new understandings or new practices into your grant work.
2. Examine the remaining resources in this entry point based on recruitment and retention practice gaps you discovered as a result of your team sessions.