July 28-29, 2020:
At the foundation of our work is the relationship of teacher retention to trust, student growth, and student learning. This month the working group discussed more recent, Alaska-focused research and looked at teacher retention and recruitment issues relevant today across the state. We looked at a plethora of research articles focused on leadership, systems, teacher preparation, recruitment, retention, and educator support. We recognized that many of the topics are not new, rather they have been discussed for a while and are being built upon. We considered how we need alignment and collaboration across the system, such as between K-12, higher education, and community, to address the educator retention and recruitment issues. In particular, we discussed the need for teaching through culture, or placed-based teaching, and how that looks different across the state since Alaska has communities with a predominantly single-culture and those that are multicultural. This connects to the need for community mentors in addition to teacher and principal mentors. In addition, the topic of supporting and developing leadership beyond just the superintendent and principal roles to develop shared leadership. The group also discussed revisiting and refining current solutions and not necessarily only considering new ones. The importance of increasing home-grown Alaskan educators remains an essential topic. We discussed cost-effectiveness of retaining teachers and the role of the retirement system in retention. Overall, the group encouraged developing multiple webs of support for educators at school/district, state, and community levels. We are interested in identifying areas of strengths and weaknesses connected to teacher retention to build stronger webs of support for educators, staff, leadership, and the system. By synthesizing ideas we started to curate detailed topics to go into the survey for the next stage of the group’s work.
Articles: July Reading List
Adams, B. L. & Covey, J. (2017). Research-based Educator Systems Support: General Report for Participating Districts, Nov. 17, 2017. Internal report. Coalition for Education Equity.
Adams, B. L. & Covey, J. (2018). Research-based Educator Systems Support: Report for Year-Long Pilot Study, Jun. 30, 2018. Internal report. Coalition for Education Equity.
Adams, B. L. & Woods, A. (2015). A Model for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Alaska’s Rural K-12 Schools. Peabody Journal of Education: Issues of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, 90(2), 250-262.
Ault, P. C., Roccograndi, A., & Burke, A. (2017). Mentoring early career teachers in urban Alaska: Impact findings from the Investing in Innovation (i3) evaluation of the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project Urban Growth Opportunity. Portland, OR: Education Northwest.
Covey, J., Adams, B. L., & Wohlforth, C. (2015). Educator Quality and Quantity (Rep.). Anchorage, AK: CEEAC.
DeFeo, D. J., Hirshberg, D., & Hill, A. (2016). It's more than just dollars: Problematizing salary as the sole mechanism for recruiting and retaining teachers in rural Alaska. In Wellness & healing: Indigenous innovation & Alaska Native Research. Proceedings from the Alaska Native Studies Conference 2016. Anchorage, AK.
DeFeo, D. J., & Tran, T. C. (2019). Recruiting, hiring, and training Alaska’s rural teachers: How superintendents practice place-conscious leadership. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 35(2), 1-17. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.26209/jrre3502
DeFeo, D. J., & Tran, T. C. (2020). COVID-19’s spring 2020 school closures: The effect on teacher candidates. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Alaska Education Policy Research.
DeFeo, D. J., Tran, T. C., Hirshberg, D., Cope, D., & Cravez, P. (2017). The cost of teacher turnover in Alaska. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Alaska Education Policy Research.
Herbert, D. M. Q. (2012). Alaskan superintendent turnover: is there a correlation between anticipated turnover and the organizational culture of school boards in the state of Alaska (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Hill, A., & Hirshberg, D. (2013). Alaska teacher turnover, supply and demand: 2013 highlights. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Alaska Education Policy Research.
Hill, M. M. (2017). Schools in rural Alaska with higher rates of student achievement: a search for positive deviance in education (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Hirshberg, D., Berman, M., DeFeo, D. J., & Hill, A. (2015). Salary & benefits schedule and teacher tenure study. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Alaska Education Policy Research.
Hirshberg, D., Hill, A., & Kasemodel, C. (2014). Will they stay or will they go? Teacher perceptions of working conditions in rural Alaska. Poster presented at the Joint meeting of the Alaska State Board of Education & Early Development and the University of Alaska Regents. Anchorage, AK.
Johnson, M. A. (2012). Barriers to Ahtna Athabascans becoming public school educators (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Kaden, U., Patterson, P. P., Healy, J. & Adams, B. L. (2016). Stemming the revolving door: Teacher retention and attrition in Arctic Alaska schools. Global Education Review, 3(1), 129-147.
Kelly, K. A. (2013). The impact of teacher achievement emotions on the co-production of education services (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Leary, A., Tetpon, B., Hirshberg, D., & Hill, A. (2014). Alaska Native-focused teacher preparation programs. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Alaska Education Policy Research.
LeDoux, L. S. (2012). Polishing the mirror: a multiple methods study of the relationship between teaching style and the application of technology in Alaska's rural one to one digital classrooms (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Levin, S. & Bradley, K. (2020). Understanding and addressing principal turnover. A Review of the Research: First report in the NASSP-LPI Principal Turnover Research Series. https://www.nassp.org/nassp-and-lpi-research-agenda/nassp-lpi-research-report/
Levin, S., Bradley, K., & Scott, C. (2020). Principal turnover: Insights from current principals. Research Brief: Second report in the NASSP-LPI Principal Turnover Research Series. https://www.nassp.org/nassp-and-lpi-research-agenda/nassp-lpi-research-report/
Levin, S., Scott, C., Yang, M., Leung, M., & Bradley, K. (2020). Supporting a strong, stable principal workforce: What matters and what can be done. Research Report: Third report in the NASSP-LPI Principal Turnover Research Series. https://www.nassp.org/nassp-and-lpi-research-agenda/nassp-lpi-research-report/
Littlebear, J. D. V. (2018). Teaching through culture in the K-12 classroom (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Rinio, D. (2018). The use of social network analysis by school librarians to evaluate and improve collaborative networks in their secondary schools: a pilot study (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
Tetpon, B., Hirshberg, D., & Hill, A. (2014). Alaska Native-focused teacher preparation programs: what have we learned? In Growing our own: Indigenous Research, Scholars, and Education. Proceedings from the Alaska Native Studies Conference 2015. Fairbanks, AK.
Vazquez C., M., Bel Hadj A., H., & Pierson, A. (2019). Educator retention and turnover under the midnight sun: Examining trends and relationships in teacher, principal, and superintendent movement in Alaska. Portland, OR: Education Northwest, Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=ED598351
Vinlove, A. L. (2012). Learning to teach where you are: preparation for context-responsive teaching in Alaska's teacher certification programs (dissertation). ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, MI.
