The lonely teacher: Schools need freedom to rethink teaching

The one-teacher, one-classroom model is leaving teachers exhausted, isolated and ready to quit, according to a National Council on Teacher Quality report, Reimagining the Teaching Role.

Eighty-four percent of teachers say there's not enough time in the workday to accomplish all that’s expected of them, reports a Pew survey.

Schools need the freedom to experiment with "strategic staffing," such as team teaching, paying expert teachers more to teach larger classes and creating new teacher leadership roles, says NCTQ. The report describes states' policies that "make it more difficult for districts to establish career progressions for teachers that keep them in the classroom while still taking on leadership roles," writes Sarah D. Sparks on Education Week.

Arizona's Next Education Workforce Initiative is working with more than 150 school districts nationwide to develop new staffing models, she writes. "NEWI partner schools have developed everything from an elementary school where teachers lead multi-age groups to a junior high school where teacher teams are led by content-area specialists."

Teachers can focus on what they do best, says Brent Maddin, the program's executive director. "Right now we ask every educator to be equally great at all of the things; in no other profession do we really do this."

Mesa, Arizona schools are developing classroom teams that include include teachers, aides, specialists, industry partners and community volunteers, writes Superintendent Andi Fourlis

"Thirty years in education has taught me we do not suffer from a teacher shortage," writes Fourlis. "Rather, we suffer from a workforce design problem. We must change the working conditions of teachers if we want to retain and attract teachers and improve student outcomes."

. . . Stevenson Elementary organizes classes into multigrades: one kindergarten house and six multigrade houses, two each serving grades 1–2, grades 3–4 and grades 5–6. Each house has a dedicated reading, writing, math and innovation teacher, one of whom serves as the team’s lead teacher. The innovation educator leads an inquiry-based class driven by social studies and science standards.

Teachers can monitor students' progress over a two-year period, deepening relationships with students and their families, she writes.

Teaming is especially helpful for novice teachers, who work closely with their team leader and more experienced colleagues, the superintendent writes. For example, one of the junior high team leaders coaches beginning teachers on how to have "difficult conversations" with parents, "and joins meetings and phone calls until the beginning teacher is comfortable and confident."