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- 1. Teach Tomorrow in Oakland/Rogers-Ard, Dabner 1 | P a g e 9/11/2015 Workshop proposal Submission: National Association of Alternative Education 2016 Conference Non-Traditional Teachers/Leaders Changing School Culture strand Workshop Session Teach Tomorrow in Oakland: recruiting and retaining local, diverse teachers. This presentation will highlight lessons learned from Teach Tomorrow in Oakland (TTO), formed as unique partnership between Mayor Ronald Dellum’s office and the Oakland Unified School District, committed to recruiting and retaining outstanding teachers who reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of our city. TTO uses multi-faceted communication strategies to attract high-quality, prospective teacher candidates who demonstrate persistence and resilience in their approach to working in an urban school setting and are committed to the following: ensuring that all students achieve at high levels, professional development, long-term employment within OUSD, and a long-term commitment to the Oakland community. While Nationally based recruiting programs are extremely effective in recruiting young college graduates into teaching and placing them in some of the district’s hardest to teach classrooms, these efforts alone have not decreased the need for highly qualified, effective, diverse classroom instructors. In fact, recruiting college students from across the nation to “serve” in classrooms as part of a community service requirement has created a revolving door in which new teachers are placed in classrooms every two or three years. Therefore, the teacher shortage that our nation is currently experiencing is not one that can be solved through recruitment efforts alone; it is first and foremost a critical issue of retention. Given the racial inequality and lack of diversity within the educational system, a substantial amount of research has documented forms of individual racism in schools manifested in teacher perceptions, expectations, discipline practices, and interactions with students from diverse backgrounds (Kuklinski & Weinstein, 2001; Tenenbaum & Ruck, 2007). The conceptualization of racism as experienced through direct, vicarious, and trans-generational mechanisms (Harrell, 2000), further suggests that students of color both experience and are impacted by the racism that is pervasive within educational settings, and specifically by racism within teacher-student interactions. In such a context of race and class-based exclusion, collaborative efforts to build sustainable pipelines that develop local educators are essential. Supporting local, diverse educators who teach for a minimum of five years and then access leadership opportunities can impact school change at the hiring level and highlights the importance of developing pipelines of critically conscious educators to counteract unjust classroom practices and experiences. Empowering teachers with curricular content knowledge and classroom management skills are insufficient when teaching diverse student populations; teachers must be culturally competent and develop the critical understanding of racism, classism, and sexism in order to effectively create transformative, equitable, rigorous educational experiences for all students; not only those of color.
- 2. Teach Tomorrow in Oakland/Rogers-Ard, Dabner 2 | P a g e 9/11/2015 To that end, TTO uses critical race theory to frame anti-oppressive education within a district- based program that purposefully and intentionally recruits local, culturally responsive diverse educators with a demonstrated commitment to social justice. The program also works to streamline personnel processes that have historically served as barriers for people of color. Additionally, with federal funding from the Transition to teach initiative, TTO demonstrates that anti-oppressive programs, if developed in conjunction with partners that enact social justice values, can be institutionalized, with intense effort, to produce community-minded educators of color. Now in its sixth year, TTO has data around retention, effectiveness of our teachers and teacher prep programs, shifts in school culture, and shifts in recruitment strategies that have been adopted district-wide. The purpose of this workshop is to share data, lessons learned, and shed light on strategies that have been successful and those that were less helpful. Because the need for diversity within the teaching workforce has been well documented (Sleeter, LaVonne, Kumashiro, 2014; Villegas & Irvine, 2010; Epstein, 2005), this presentation will not focus on that need; it is assumed that proponents of alternative certification and educators in general agree that diverse teachers are needed in our schools. However, the methods used to recruit and retain those teachers are less clear. Therefore, this presentation will focus on the following three goals: 1) Presenters will share data and strategies used to recruit local, diverse teacher candidates 2) Presenters will present effective best practices for retaining diverse teachers, and for building the confidence needed to be effective within classrooms 3) Presenters will discuss barriers to district-wide implementation and suggest strategies to navigate those barriers For goal one, presenters will present data compiled over the past six years around best practices for recruiting local, diverse teachers. In addition to non-traditional recruitment strategies, the notion of keeping candidates “warm” will be shared. Finally, presenters will show data that confirms a lack of relevance between teacher-preparation tests and teacher effectiveness in the classroom. Goal two is at the heart of our presentation; presenters will share strategies developed to retain teachers of color, culturally competent teachers, most notably the cohort model, monthly meetings, constant “warm” strategies, celebrations, “Men in the classroom” meetings and other best practices developed over the past six years. Perhaps the most important innovation was putting a TTO Teacher Leader system in place by subject area, which allowed for the re-integration of some of TTO’s “older” teachers, along with the added benefit of having subject and grade-specific pedagogues delivering coaching and mentoring to newer teachers. Goal three will focus on the struggle to take these practices from a “program” or “initiative” and move it into the “way things are accomplished” at the district level. While many programs are now focused on recruitment and retention, without the last goal to institutionalize practices, when funding ends, so does the program. Therefore, this goal is extremely important as a cautionary tale and a worthwhile discussion point for other districts, Universities and programs working diligently to diversify the teaching workforce.
- 3. Teach Tomorrow in Oakland/Rogers-Ard, Dabner 3 | P a g e 9/11/2015 In summary, Teach Tomorrow in Oakland (TTO) (www.teachtomorrowinoakland.net) is a district-based initiative that recruits and retains diverse local educators. Now in its sixth year, TTO has the data to support retention and recruitment efforts, while also sharing lessons learned about strategies necessary to implement best practices within the larger institutional framework with an eye towards sustainability. Target audiences for this workshop are Human Resource administrators, policy makers, IHE and non-IHE program administrators, faculty, Site Supervisors/Evaluators/Specialists and Researchers. References: Epstein, K. K. (2005). The whitening of the American teaching force: A problem of recruitment or a problem of racism? Social Justice, 89-102. Harrell, S. P. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(1), 42. Kuklinski, M. R., & Weinstein, R. S. (2001). Classroom and developmental differences in a path model of teacher expectancy effects. Child development,72(5), 1554-1578. Sleeter, C. E., La Vonne, I. N., & Kumashiro, K. K. (Eds.). (2014). Diversifying the teacher workforce: Preparing and retaining highly effective teachers. Routledge. Tenenbaum, H. R., & Ruck, M. D. (2007). Are teachers' expectations different for racial minority than for European American students? A meta-analysis.Journal of educational psychology, 99(2), 253. Villegas, A. M., & Irvine, J. J. (2010). Diversifying the teaching force: An examination of major arguments. The Urban Review, 42(3), 175-192.