The Educator Confidence Index as measured by publisher HMH sank to a historic low, from nearly 50% on the eve of the pandemic to 40% in 2022. That rebounded to 42% last year, according to the company’s annual Educator Confidence Report, which measures teachers’ perceptions of salaries, workload and well-being, and funding for classroom resources, among other factors.

About three-quarters of the teachers surveyed told HMH they had no plans to leave the profession, though some had not ruled it out. They also said seeing students grow and succeed was the biggest motivating factor in their jobs (aside from salaries.)

Teacher confidence sapped by politics

Meanwhile, a closer look at a series of recent surveys conducted by state education departments and unions shows that teachers and the districts that employ them continued to grapple with some considerable headwinds.

In Colorado, more than eight in 10 teachers said the intrusion of politics had dampened their morale while a third admitted that today’s political climate had driven them to alter their curriculum. “Due to the politicization of our schools, our educators have felt the need to censor themselves, which robs our students of the quality education that they deserve,” says the survey released last month by the Colorado Education Association. “We need to restore educator autonomy so that our educators are empowered to provide the best education possible for our students.”

Among the union’s goals for 2024 is to help pass legislation that will prevent book bans in Colorado schools and ensure students’ “freedom to read.”

Safety is also a significant concern. About one-third of the teachers reported being physically abused by a student in the past two years while a majority noted a deterioration in the mental health of both students and themselves.

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“Right now, we’re at the brink of a public education crisis,” the association’s president, Amie Baca-Oehlert, said in a statement. “We cannot expect our educators to remain underpaid, disrespected and unprotected and still show up to work day after day to educate our children. We are and will continue to lose quality educators to other states if this remains the case.”

9 in 10 teachers say …

More of Connecticut’s teachers—some 77%—were feeling frustrated and burned out in 2023, with nearly three-quarters telling the Connecticut Education Association they were increasingly likely to retire or leave the profession early. After stress and burnout, more than nine out of 10 Connecticut teachers reported having the following concerns:

1. School and classroom decisions made by politicians and non-educators
2. Staff shortages
3. A rising number of teachers leaving the profession
4. Lack of respect for educators
5. Declines in student mental health

Almost all of the teachers surveyed by Connecticut’s union listed the following solutions to burnout:

• More competitive salaries
• More planning and prep time
• Less non-teaching duties and paperwork
• More effective policies to address student behavior
• Smaller class sizes
• Appropriate mental health and behavioral support for students
• More teacher autonomy in instructional practices

“Political and personal attacks, toxic disrespect, and threats leveled at educators during school board meetings all contribute to the rapid pace of educators quitting the jobs they love,” the union’s president, Kate Dias, said in a statement.

Lack of applicants

Though not a direct measure of teacher confidence, recent data released by the Nebraska Department of Education show there were more unfilled teaching positions at the beginning of this school year compared to 2022-2023. There were about 140 more vacant positions reported by a smaller number of districts, according to Nebraska Public Media.

The top reasons for vacancies were a lack of applicants or a lack of qualified applicants, the department’s report explains. Special education had the most unfilled positions by far—more than double that of elementary education, the area with the second-higher number of vacancies.

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Most recently, and two days after Christmas, Elkhart Community Schools in Indiana chose Larry Huff to succeed Superintendent Mark Mow. Huff, who will become Elkhart’s new leader in July, is currently the Metropolitan School District of Pike Township’s chief academic officer.

Among the largest districts to make a year-end appointment was Austin ISD in Texas, which unanimously picked interim superintendent Matias Segura to keep the top spot full-time. Segura, who joined Austin ISD in 2017, has been the interim superintendent since Jan. 3, 2023. A graduate of Austin ISD and the son of a teacher in the district, Segura had previously served as chief of operations.

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Several other Texas districts also secured new leaders heading into 2024, including two that hired their first-ever female superintendents. Kristin Craft became superintendent of Boerne ISD on Jan. 2 after having served as Spring Branch ISD’s associate superintendent of academics and chief academic officer since 2018. Keller ISD has promoted Tracy Johnson to superintendent from her previous role as the district’s chief human resources officer.

Fort Bend ISD near Houston named as its next leader Duncanville ISD Superintendent Marc Smith, who is set to sign his new contract next week. Smith, a 30-year educator, also served as the superintendent of Marshall ISD and was previously a principal and assistant superintendent in Fort Bend. Arlington ISD near Dallas has appointed Matt Smith, who is currently the superintendent of Belton ISD and has been a K12 administrator for more than 20 years.

More new leaders

In Wisconsin, Superintendent Monica Kelsey-Brown is moving to the Waunakee Community School District from the Brown Deer School District, which she has led since the 2020-2021 school year. She has also served as a student achievement supervisor with Milwaukee Public Schools.

Another superintendent changing places is Russell Dyer, who was unanimously voted in as the new director of Collierville Schools in Tennessee after having led Cleveland City Schools in the same state for eight years. He also served as Collierville’s chief of staff from 2014-16.

In another hire from within, interim superintendent Lori Wilson was the unanimous choice to become the next leader of the Ozark School District in Missouri. She had been Ozark’s assistant superintendent of business and chief financial officer since 2022, previously serving as superintendent of the West Plains School District, also in Missouri.

And in Mississippi, Ted Poore was selected to become the superintendent of Madison County Schools after having served the district for 26 years. Poore, who will take over for retiring Superintendent Charlotte Seals in July, will immediately become Madison County’s deputy superintendent. He was previously a teacher, coach, counselor and school-level administrator in the district.

These new leaders were also chosen in the following districts:

• Jim DuBois, Goshen Community Schools (Indiana)
• Scott Faul, Minot Public Schools (North Dakota)
• Cleo Perry, St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools (Louisiana)
• Casey Wright, Nordonia Hills City School District (Ohio)

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“It’s quite alarming,” says Javaid Siddiqi, the former Virginia secretary of education and now the CEO of Hunt Institute. The organization created the map for the One Million Teachers of Color campaign, which is a collaboration by several equity advocacy organizations. “[School leaders] need to be aware how their share fits in with the larger state share and how the state share fits in with the larger one million,” Siddiqi continues.

Superintendents can’t close the gap by themselves but there are several things K12 leaders and their teams can do once they are aware of the scope of the problem, Siddiqi counsels. Grow-your-own programs are gaining traction in many districts as educators look to move paraprofessionals into full-time teacher roles and inspire high school students to put education at the center of their college and career plans.

“Superintendents are sitting on goldmines,” Siddiqi attests. “They are graduating young people of color and they know who the five-star African American, Hispanic and AAPI students are.”

Approximately 40% of schools lack even a single teacher of color. And, as most educators know, extensive research shows that if students of color have even one teacher of color while they’re in school they are more likely to graduate, be ready for college and be enrolled in AP and other college-level classes. And they are also less likely to be suspended. “It improves the things we want to improve and reduces the things we want to reduce,” Siddiqi notes.

The same holds true for gaps between teachers and school leaders, and the U.S. education system now has a diversity gap of about 30,000 administrators. When teachers of color work with administrators of color, they feel less isolated and are less likely to leave, he adds.

Digging into the diversity gaps

The map measures the gap between the percentage of students of color enrolled in public schools and the number of teachers of color in each state. The numbers vary throughout the country’s region—for instance, some of the states with the biggest and the narrowest gaps are in the Northeast. However, those numbers may be skewed by the low number of students of color in states such as Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

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Some of the biggest gaps are in the West, and in states considered the most politically “blue.” California, for example, needs about 139,000 teachers to close its gaps.

On the other hand, the smallest gaps are concentrated in states with tiny populations of students of color.

These 10 states have the largest gaps based on the following percentage points:

1. Nevada: 46.5
2. Delaware: 45.1
3. New Jersey: 40.3
4. California: 39.7
5. Rhode Island: 39.3
6. Arizona: 39.1
7. Maryland: 38.8
8. Connecticut: 38.5
9. New York: 38.2
10. Washington & Virginia: 35.5

These 10 states have the smallest gaps:

1. Vermont: 9.1
2. Maine: 9.5
3. West Virginia: 8.6
4. New Hampshire: 15
5. Wyoming: 15.9
6. Montana: 17.6
7. Utah: 20.5
8. North Dakota: 21
9. Kentucky: 21.3
10. Idaho: 21.9

View the rest of the data included in the map, which also measures diversity gaps between students of color and school leadership.

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Providing higher salaries, more precise professional development and clearer pathways for advancement—as many district leaders are now doing—should help repair the teaching pipeline.

But additional strategies are likely needed to reimagine the essence of teaching so as to make the profession “more fulfilling, joyful, and sustainable,” says the “Teaching, reinvented” report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

DALI superintendents summit: 7 important things leaders are talking about

“While new freedoms honored educators’ personal needs and interests, stronger relationships meant that they had greater insight into the needs and interests of others,” the researchers wrote of the teachers and innovations they have observed in schools. “They did not feel like cogs in a machine, but rather members of an authentic community.”

New teaching roles defined

The Center analyzed six new teaching roles that may be familiar to some K12 leaders as educators break away from traditional job descriptions. Some of these approaches are being tested in private schools and micro-schools but could translate to public K12 settings:

1. Lead teacher: Acts as a mentor, curriculum developer and co-teacher for small teams of teachers, often in the same content area or grade level.
2. Empowered teacher: Works with other teachers and administrators to set the academic calendar, dress code, student learning targets and other policies and structures.
3. Team teacher: Works on a team with two to four educators and 50 to 80 students. The other team members may be pre-service student teachers, paraprofessionals or licensed teachers.
4. Community learning guide: Creates community-connected learning experiences that may connect with students’ cultural backgrounds and the natural environment, sometimes in partnership with local businesses.
5. Solo learning guide: Teaches independently, with five to 15 students, often as a standalone micro-school based out of the educator’s home.
6. Technical guide: Leverages educators’ expertise in technical subjects like architecture, product design or robotics to design curriculum and guide student work. Often co-teaches groups of 10 to 20 students in a private school setting.

The researchers found nearly all the educators they encountered liked working in unconventional roles but the teachers also wondered whether the practices were sustainable long-term. Others had concerns about getting sufficient training and support due to the newness of the approaches.

Putting ideas into action

Administrators thinking of adding these new roles should “give educators more reasons to love their work.” That starts with giving teachers more control over customizing their curriculum and re-aligning course schedules so teachers have more time to collaborate with grade-level colleagues and participate on policy-setting committees.

Teachers who take on unconventional roles also need unconventional support as they develop new skills and become comfortable with new structures. Leaders also need to look at the “long-term trajectory” by preparing for when the trendsetters move on from the new roles and need to be replaced.

Those administrators who are experimenting with these new roles also need to assess how student achievement is being impacted. “While competitive compensation and benefits are critical, educators also want to be more intrinsically motivated by their jobs,” the researchers conclude. “Not only did autonomy and personal connection help foster ownership of their work and investment in their community, but it also helped them find meaning and fulfillment in jobs that oftentimes were more demanding than a regular teaching role.”

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The Biden Administration is distributing nearly $370 million in grants for retention, recruitment, and career advancement through its Education Innovation and Research and Teacher and School Leader Incentive programs. Schools in North Carolina, for example, received $24 million from the latter fund to work on staff shortages.

The state’s second-largest district, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, is putting $7.7 million worth of those teacher retention grants into its Teacher Leader Pathway program over the next three years. This advanced career track offers exclusive professional development opportunities—and a chance to earn an additional $18,250 in salary—to educators with a history of high student achievement.

Read more from DA: DALI superintendents summit: 7 important things leaders are talking about

Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s program is also being developed as a model to help other districts implement similar recruitment and retention initiatives, WFAE.com reported.

In Indianapolis, Perry Township Schools in will spend $6.4 million over the next three years on teacher effectiveness bonuses and stipends for master teachers. Administrators also plan to hire two more literacy coaches to support teachers working to help students who have fallen behind in reading, the Indianapolis Star reported.

“We need more innovative approaches to supporting the return and retention of outstanding, well-prepared, well-supported educators who meet the needs and reflect the diversity of their students,” said James Lane, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the federal Office of Elementary and Secondary Education  “These funds will catalyze more of these approaches in schools across the country.”

Accordingly, nonprofit K12 organizations have also been awarded federal grants to drive staffing efforts in multiple districts. The Center of Excellence for Educator Preparation and Innovation in South Carolina now has $26.7 million to help the districts in Fairfield and Georgetown counties raise student achievement through recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers.

The institute’s initiative, which is based at Vorhees University, an HBCU, will focus on improving teacher evaluation procedures, raising performance-based compensation, creating a principal collaboration network and hiring more instructional coaches for new teachers.

How states are helping

In Illinois, Quincy Public Schools will receive $630,000 over the next three years from the state’s board of education to provide bonuses to new hires, $450 stipends for special education teachers and assistance buying classroom supplies. Quincy’s new teachers can earn $750 at the end of their first year, $1,000 after the second and $1,250 after the third, Superintendent Todd Pettit told the Herald-Whig.

“We’re pleased with the collaboration we’ve had with the teachers union to be able to come up with the incentives we have,” Pettit said. “You want to be able to cast the net wide so you’re giving something to everyone and not just the new teachers and recruiting.”

Illinois’ grants can also be used by districts to help teachers with housing stipends, down-payment assistance and loan repayments and other living expenses.

New York recently awarded nearly $12 million to support two-year teacher residency programs in multiple districts. The incoming educators will gain classroom experience alongside established teacher mentors. A new state law also requires New York’s education commissioner to work with colleges and universities to guide districts in retaining and recruiting more teachers of color.

Higher ed also lends a hand

Teacher preparation programs at several universities are also receiving grants to send more new and more diverse educators into the K12 workforce. The University of Central Oklahoma College of Education and Professional Studies will use a $2.45 million American Rescue Plan Act grant to help 120 teachers complete their master’s degrees. The university’s “Accelerated Cohorts for Teacher Success” program helps teachers pay for tuition, fees, textbooks, background checks and graduation fees.

Kansas State University’s College of Education has received a $3.9 million federal grant from the Supporting Effective Educator Development program to help six school districts in Kansas and Nebraska hire more highly effective teachers of color to serve culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Kansas State’s Project RAÍCES—Spanish for “roots”—will not only help preservice teacher candidates complete their degrees, it is also providing the six districts with professional development that emphasizes “biography-driven instruction.” This framework trains teachers to leverage students’ sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive and academic assets.

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Douglas Killian, who has been superintendent of Pflugerville ISD in Texas since 2017, was named Monday as the lone finalist to lead Cypress-Fairbanks ISD outside Houston. Killian, a U.S. military veteran, has also served as superintendent of Hutto ISD, Huffman ISD and Poteet ISD, racking up nearly 20 years of experience in the top spot in Texas districts.

A Texas Superintendent of the Year finalist in 2022, Killian spearheaded the passage of a $370 million bond package in Hutto ISD. “I believe in leading with honesty and integrity, setting high expectations, striving for continual growth and treating all students the same,” Killian said on Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s website.

Among the other superintendents relocating is Christopher Moran, who will move from Whitehouse ISD to San Angelo ISD (both districts are in Texas). Moran, who has been an educator for 32 years, will replace Carl Dethloff, who is retiring at the end of December. Moran has also served as superintendent of Brownsboro ISD and as an administrator in Clear Creek ISD.

And in Pennsylvania, Superintendent Daniel T. Potutschnig has found a new home in the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District, where he will take the helm in early 2024. Potutschnig has been superintendent of the Millersburg Area School District since July 2022.

He previously served as the administrative director of the Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology for 11 years and as assistant director of the Huntingdon County Career and Technology Center.

First-time superintendents

Newton County Schools in Mississippi and Lee County Schools in North Carolina have both promoted their next superintendents from within. Newton County Schools chose Assistant Superintendent Brooke Sibley to take the helm on July 1, 2024, replacing Superintendent Tyler Hansford.

Prior to becoming assistant superintendent earlier this year, Sibley served the district as a director in various capacities, including in special education, talented and gifted, federal programs, curriculum, assessment, accreditation and accountability.

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Lee County Schools picked interim superintendent Chris Dossenbach to become its next leader. Dossenbach, a Lee County native and graduate of the district, has also served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and high school principal.

Finally, the Penn Hills School District in Pennsylvania has chosen its next superintendent, John Mozzocio, who is currently the director of pupil services and special programs supervisor at the New Castle Area School District.

A handful of retirements

On the other end of the career ladder, a handful of superintendents announced their plans to retire:

• Todd Martin will retire from Yadkin County Schools in North Carolina on March 1, after serving as the district’s leader since 2013.
• Tom Moore‘s last day at Great Falls Public Schools in Montana will be June 28, 2024.
• Superintendent Charlotte Seals will leave Madison County Schools in Mississippi at the end of the school year after 35 years with the district.

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Here’s what superintendents and other administrators had to say at this November’s DALI summit about some of the most critical topics educators will contend with now and in the new year.

1. What’s keeping you up at night?

“Staffing, of course,” was the response from Jamar Perry, the associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction and student services at Granville County Public Schools in North Carolina. His district is offering longevity bonuses, mentoring and professional development to attract and retain staff who are willing to put in the work to ensure students become proficient in the core subjects.

Charlottesville City Schools in Virginia has not been able to offer some upper-level courses due to teaching vacancies, adds Superintendent Royal A. Gurley. He worries shortages will worsen as higher salaries in the private sector lure more and more employees away from public education.

And it’s a problem technology may not be able to solve. “It’s going to cripple a lot of school divisions,” Gurley asserted. “Doing it virtually, getting a virtual teacher is not going to be sufficient, especially for our most vulnerable learners. They need a teacher in the classroom.”

2. What keeps you going?

Districts are also contending with a higher-than-normal rate of administrative turnover in recent years. But not the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indiana, where Nikki C. Woodson has been the superintendent for 15 years. So what keeps her motivated?

“Easy answer: 110% the kids, and the kids’ progress, and their remarks when they come back from college and share insight into their K12 experience,” Woodson explained.

A recent college graduate who’d had a disciplinary problem while still in the district recently told Woodson she’d kept a note of encouragement that the superintendent wrote her at the time. The student kept the note taped to her mirror for all four years of college.

“I said ‘Hey, this is not who you are. Think about your future, focus on that, make choices thinking about your future,’” Woodson noted.

Kenneth Dyer, who has been superintendent of the Dougherty County School System in Georgia for seven years, has a go-to destination when he needs encouragement. “When I’m having a bad day, I go to our pre-K center,” Dyer explains. “That lets me hit the reset button. It helps me remember that I do this for the kids and to create opportunities so they will have a successful future.”

3. How are you supporting students’ mental health?

A recent survey Dougherty County survey returned some “alarming numbers” about students’ mental health struggles. The good news is that the district applied for and received a five-year, $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that has allowed Dyer to hire 17 behavioral health support staff.

“One thing we’re laser-focused on is making sure we provide an environment that’s safe and supportive,” he says. “The framework we have and the foundation we’re laying is promising.”

4. What exciting new academic programs are you offering?

The new dual-language immersion program at Granville County Public Schools gets students started learning Spanish in kindergarten, with the goal of having them become proficient by third grade. And in Charlottesville City, urban gardening is showing students the practical applications of core subjects such as math and science.

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“Students are growing things in the garden and eating them in the cafeteria,” Gurley noted. “It’s about sustainability and renewable energy. Hands-on learning is bringing it to life.”

5. Is anyone thinking about test scores anymore?

The answer is “yes,” according to Michael Porter, superintendent of the Omak School District in Washington. Porter has hired new instructional coaches for his elementary and middle schools so educators can take a deeper dive into the achievement data. The goal is to get support to students at the first sign that they are struggling. “Instead of just sitting and stewing, we said, ‘Let’s come up with some solutions,” Porter said.

6. Upping your communications game

The Omak School District is preparing to put a levy on the February ballot to renew operating funds for the next four years. Porter has been appearing on the radio regularly and posting on social media to raise awareness. His latest initiative is “Soup With the Supe”—an hour-long forum where parents and community members will be served dinner as they ask questions about the district’s ongoing initiatives.

He also meets community members for coffee as often as possible. “I don’t always hear from people not connected to the schools,” Porter adds. “I want people to feel like if they see something that doesn’t sound like Michael, I’m going to give him a call or I’m going to stop by and talk with him.”

7. And isn’t it time to embrace artificial intelligence?

AI is “the catalyst education needs to force change,” says Jeff McCoy, associate superintendent for academics at Greenville County Schools in South Carolina. Recent advances in artificial intelligence will allow educators to more accurately assess student learning and better personalize instruction to each learner’s needs.

Districts will have to prepare teachers to train students on the appropriate and ethical use of AI—but that’s not the only promise the technology holds for K12. “It’s a tool that needs to be embraced for teachers’ own well-being,” he concludes. “There are so many ways it can help them save time and be more efficient.”

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Ashley Chohlis, a 28-year educator who has been superintendent of Texas’ Poth Independent School District since 2022, was named Monday as the lone finalist to take the helm of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District later this month, the Uvalde Leader-News reported.

The search to replace interim superintendent Gary Patterson began in August, and Uvalde CISD received applications from 30 candidates, according to the Leader-News.

More from DA: 2 departures and 2 suspensions lead to more turnover at the top

Hillsborough County Public Schools, one of the nation’s top 10 largest districts, has made Van Ayres superintendent after he served as the interim of the Florida district for several months.

Ayres is a lifelong employee of the Tampa-headquartered district, where he began his career as a science teacher in 1997. Prior to being chosen interim superintendent, he served as chief of strategic planning and partnerships and deputy superintendent. Ayres expressed his gratitude on X (formerly known as Twitter):

.@HillsboroughSch and its community have always been home to me. I am proud and privileged to serve this district as superintendent and thank the Board for placing their trust in me.

It meant the world to have my family by my side as I embark on this next chapter of my career. pic.twitter.com/VaOpaGhbnR

— Van Ayres (@VanAyresHCPS) November 2, 2023

“This is more than a job to me; Hillsborough County Public Schools is where I grew up and it is where my heart will always be,” Ayres said on the district’s Facebook page.

In Missouri, Superintendent Aaron Gerla has found a new home at Mountain Grove Public Schools after having led the Ash Grove R-IV School District for eight years. Gerla intends to leave Ash Grove at the end of the school year.

Districts are promoting from within

Several other districts made internal hires to fill leadership vacancies. Westminster Public Schools in Colorado has decided to promote Deputy Superintendent Jeni Gotto to the top spot at the end of the school year. Gotto will succeed Superintendent Pam Swanson, who is retiring.

At the school board meeting where Gotto was chosen, former Westminster Board of Education president Dino Valente insisted promoting from within often works out better than national searches, which can result in “division and chaos.” “Our students and staff deserve better,” Valente said. “They deserve continuity and stability. They deserve leadership that puts the best interests of their futures at the forefront of the mission.”

Laurel County Public Schools in Kentucky has promoted its interim, Denise Griebel, to the full-time superintendency, capping off her 32 years with the district. Griebel, who began her career as a 7th-grade science teacher, has also served Laurel County as an assistant and deputy superintendent in 2011 since 2007.

“After serving just a few weeks as interim superintendent, I found learning all the new aspects of the role, along with the challenges that some of them brought to be energizing and motivating for me as a veteran educator,” Griebel said on the district’s website.

In Texas, the Ceres USD Board of Trustees has appointed alumna Amy Peterman as its next superintendent. Peterman, who is now the district’s deputy superintendent of educational services, will succeed Denise Wickham, who is retiring in June.

Finally, the one-building Schroon Lake Central School in New York has named its preK-12 principal, Kemm Pemrick, to become its next superintendent on Jan. 1.

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Two of the moves took place in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, where Saugus Public Schools’ board on Thursday fired Superintendent Erin McMahon, who has been on paid administrative leave for the past 10 months, Itemlive reported.

An investigation by the board accused McMahon, who took the helm in July 2021, of failing to disclose a relationship with a graduate school that provided consulting services to the district and allowing another consultant to charge excess fees. McMahon called the investigation flawed and discriminatory, according to Itemlive.

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The Everett School Committee has placed Superintendent Priya Tahiliani on “non-disciplinary, paid administrative leave,” having already decided in a narrow vote this spring that her contract would not be renewed when it expires next year.

Shortly after that decision, Tahiliani sued Everett Public Schools and the city’s mayor, Carlo DeMaria, alleging she had been subjected to racist and sexist comments.

In announcing the suspension on Oct. 30, the committee says it is investigating “10 employee complaints” made against Tahiliani’s leadership, WBUR reported.

Elizabeth Keenan, superintendent of the Special School District of St. Louis County, was also placed on administrative leave late last month though no reasons were made public, The St Louis Business Journal reported. A district staff memo shared by several news outlets described the issue as an “internal personnel matter.” Keenan has been with the special education district since 2019, having previously served as chief officer of Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Diverse Learners and Health and Wellness.

In Louisiana, the Monroe City School Board voted Monday “to retire” Superintendent Brent Vidrine, who was placed on leave late last month, according to the Monroe News-Star. A preliminary investigation by the district “raised serious concerns” about Vidrine’s actions, though the investigators had yet to make a final conclusion, KNOE reported.

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“A quality student teaching experience with an effective mentor is equivalent to an additional year of experience for a new teacher. But student teaching experiences can vary greatly,” writes University of Michigan researcher Matthew Truwit, author of “Increasing Teacher Preparedness through Effective Student Teaching,” a new EdResearch for Action report.

There is little evidence teacher shortages will ease anytime soon. In Nebraska, for instance, teacher vacancies more than doubled (they rose by 114%) between 2011 and 2023, leaving the state with 769 unfilled positions last year, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The number of high school graduates who entered teacher preparation programs rose to 4,149 in 2020-21, compared to 2,822 in 2017-18. Yet, only 1,350 students completed their programs in 2020-21, the World-Herald noted.

Truwit notes further that the nation’s teacher workforce is “greener than ever,” as the number of first-year educators has doubled over the last 30 years.

Also, policies in many states are working against raising the quality of student teaching programs. For instance, only about half of all states require a student teaching experience to last at least 10 weeks and it has to be “full-time” in even fewer.

“Alternative [or job-embedded] programs, which produced about 23% of new teachers in 2019 (nearly 35,000), typically involve a much shorter period of student teaching—or even none at all—before candidates become teachers of record,” Truwit adds.

Why student teaching matters

Superintendents should know that districts that offer robust student teaching experiences are likely to eventually hire those educators full-time. “Surveys of new teachers show that the student teaching experience is the most important part of their preparation,” Truwit asserts.

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Truwit details five evidence-based strategies school districts and teacher training programs can leverage to better prepare new educators to thrive in the classroom:

1. Incentivize effective teachers to serve as mentors.
2. Provide mentors with professional development on coaching.
3. Collect frequent feedback from the student teachers and their mentors.
4. Place teacher candidates in schools with low turnover, effective faculty and collaborative environments.
5. Place candidates in grades, subjects and schools in which they may later teach.

Truwit also described some practices that have proven not to work:

• The length of candidates’ student teaching experience alone does not seem to impact their initial instructional effectiveness.
• Recruiting mentors based solely on years of experience does not guarantee they will be effective mentors.
• Relying heavily on available teacher effectiveness metrics—such as observation ratings—for selecting mentors may provide an incomplete picture of effectiveness and can introduce bias against teachers of color.
• More instructional effective mentors appear to produce better student teachers but this does not appear to alter if, where or for how long candidates are employed.
• Small stipends may not be enough to affect which teachers choose to become mentors.

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