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Flickr; Department of Education
Report: Pandemic could spur new school staffing approaches
Kara Arundel
Sept. 28, 2020
Dive Brief:
Predictions that the teaching shortage will worsen due to the COVID-19
outbreak should cause school leaders to rethink how they manage teacher
staffing, recommends the American Institutes for Research in a new
report.
Proponents say virtual learning and attention to personalized
instruction for students create an ideal moment to change teaching
structures so educators have opportunities to expand their professional
skill sets.
Novel solutions include differentiating staffing, which includes
building instructional teams based on each teacher’s strengths and
desire to learn new skills.
Dive Insight:
Overnight, it seemed, some teachers’ roles changed from being leaders
in their classrooms to including broader responsibilities as mentors
and coaches to other teachers, curriculum designers, technology
facilitators, data coaches and assessment designers. What if that were
the norm, asks the AIR paper.
The differentiated school staffing approach is gaining attention as the
pandemic continues to disrupt traditional education approaches and
structures and as concerns about educator shortages intensify.
One approach suggested by AIR, and developed by consulting group Public
Impact, is the Opportunity Culture initiative. In this structure, an
experienced and effective teacher leads a small, collaborative team of
teachers in the same grade or subject. The multi-classroom leaders use
student data to help the team of teachers prepare for instruction,
evaluate each student’s educational progress and make adjustments where
needed.
Another potential staffing shift would encourage teachers to be leaders
in different education-related areas, such as instruction, curriculum,
learning through technology, data analytics and more, according to the
AIR report.
“This is a great chance to rethink how technology is used by
high-quality teachers and to address shortage areas,” said Lynn
Holdheide, senior advisor of the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders.
A recent report from GTL, co-written by Holdheide, suggests state
education systems consider funding options that allow highly effective
teachers to teach multiple classrooms through virtual learning formats
with support from paraprofessionals or other staff.
Creating different teacher staffing structures would allow proven
teachers to reach more students but the approaches could also help
retain teachers who desire leadership roles without leaving the
classroom, say advocates. An overhaul could also impact how teachers
are trained and certified.
Teacher shortages exist for subjects such as STEM, special education,
and other specialties, and the pandemic is likely to exacerbate these
vacancies, AIR reports. An analysis from the Learning Policy Institute
said that a 15% reduction in state education funding could equal the
loss of just under 319,000 teaching positions in the U.S., or a 8.4%
reduction in the public school teaching workforce. Potential budget
shortfalls, pre-existing teachers shortages and low teacher morale is
causing a “trifecta of challenges” for school staffing goals, according
to AIR.
“[Teacher shortages are] not going to get better and we have to be creative,” Holdheide said.
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