AACTE Participates in Next Educator Workforce: Asking the Right Questions
I recently represented AACTE at the Next Educator Workforce: Asking the right questions conference, joining educators from across the country at the Arizona State University (ASU) Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC).
The ASU conference organizers asked the question: Why convene around the idea of the next education Workforce? The response included the following:
- Fewer people are entering the profession.
- More educators are leaving the profession early.
- Educators need more of the sustaining rewards of adult collaboration and efficacy.
Our challenge, according to ASU, is to build broad-based, multilateral partnerships that include colleges of education, schools, districts, and communities committed to designing and fielding new workforce models that make education work better for both educators and learners.
Over two days, local and state practitioners, administrators, superintendents, and key foundation personnel met to discuss, design, and redesign potential school environments where the school day structure, programming, and scheduling was centered around student learning.
We modeled many of the designs around current programs that ASU MLFTC has developed through strong partnerships with their local school districts in an effort to design school environments focused on student learning through team teaching. Teaming with master teachers and mentors ensures teacher candidates are being guided and provided feedback throughout their clinical experiences. In several examples across Arizona, superintendents have encouraged their school building leaders to pursue year-long residency programs with teacher candidates, ensuring candidates begin and end the school year with their students and participate in each and every learning opportunity in a school day.
Designing the next educator workforce requires all stakeholders are at the table contributing and learning from one another. AACTE thanks ASU MLFTC and the Educator Workforce Initiatives Team for the invitation to learn together!
Tags: events, school-university partnerships, student achievement, teacher quality, workforce development
