Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
State Support for Teacher Leadership: Kentucky offers Educator Career Pathways, which allow teachers to maintain a strong connection with students in the classroom while exploring leadership opportunities. The six leadership spheres are: leading from the classroom, leading through modeling and coaching, leading groups and teams, leading to increase teacher voice and influence, leading to professionalize teaching, and leading to connect with larger community and world. "While the spheres are interrelated, with each one broadening the stage for teacher leadership, it is not expected that individual teachers will fulfill every role. Rather, these six spheres suggest multiple roles for teacher leaders."
In addition, Kentucky, along with partners, developed the Kentucky Teacher Leadership Framework and has promoted its use among districts, teacher groups, and schools in order to clearly define and develop teacher leadership. The use of district leadership teams has been a common approach in the state's initiatives and professional learning opportunities, including the Instructional Transformation grant, Next Generation Leadership Networks, and Kentucky Engineering Educator Pathways (KEEP) events.
Kentucky has partnered with the Education Professional Standards Board on the Network to Transform Teaching, which promotes National Board Certification and has facilitated statewide Activating Teacher Leadership Institutes (ATLI), where school/district teams design a specific teacher leadership role in response to a school/district need, including responsibilities and compensation, and then receive ongoing support from a mentor throughout the school year.
Selection Criteria: Kentucky districts determine selection criteria for the Educator Career Pathways. The state does not offer guidance.
Incentives and Supports: Kentucky does not offer specific incentives or supports to teacher leaders for the Educator Career Pathways.
Base criteria for leadership roles on effectiveness and content knowledge.
Kentucky should ensure that teachers selected for leadership roles have a record of effectiveness in the classroom and bring substantial teaching experience and subject-matter knowledge.
Offer incentives or supports to teachers who assume leadership roles.
Kentucky should offer—or encourage districts to offer—either financial incentives or nonmonetary supports to assist teacher leaders. To allow effective teacher leaders to remain in the classroom, Kentucky should ensure that principals provide time and space for the tasks of both teacher of record and teacher leadership roles, which may be accomplished, for example, through a reduction of class loads.
Kentucky recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
9C: Leadership Opportunities
Research from the past four decades widely supports leadership roles for teachers.[1] Teachers aspire to engage in leadership and professional growth opportunities,[2] and desire more participation in decisions about instruction.[3] Research suggests teacher leaders should be involved in policy and decision-making at some level.[4]
Research has not found a relationship between teacher leadership and student achievement;[5] however, the presence of teacher leadership opportunities in schools has benefits for individual teacher leaders, as well as the school-wide teacher community. Teacher leaders feel more confident, empowered, and professionally satisfied;[6] they also feel that leadership roles allowed them to grow professionally.[7] Teachers in schools with teacher leadership opportunities report that such opportunities contribute to greater teacher empowerment, professional community, and collective responsibility.[8] For their school community, teachers in leadership roles have the capacity to increase teacher collaboration, spread best practices, encourage teacher professional learning, and focus on content-specific issues.[9] Teacher leaders support professional learning communities by conducting formal professional development or assisting other teachers in classrooms.[10] By concurrently serving as teachers, teacher leaders are likely to be more effective in both roles.[11]
Teacher leaders selected for these roles should bring substantial teaching experience and knowledge of the curriculum,[12] as well as effective instruction.[13] Insofar as strong teacher leadership systems should ensure that teacher leaders also remain in the classroom as teachers, principals should provide time and space for the tasks of both teacher of record and teacher leadership roles, such as reducing class loads.