Guidepost 4: Elevated and Evolving Careers
Teachers have access to meaningful and differentiated career ladders
“The one-size-fits all model does not work. Giving voice to teachers and empowering them to use their talents to progress in the profession makes sense. These are the types of incentives that keep teachers motivated and retained in the profession.” Kevin Rutter, 2010 Illinois Teacher of the Year, High School Social Studies Teacher, Chicago, Illinois
“When teachers have multiple, innovative opportunities to lead, they feel respected and empowered as professionals.” Jake Gourley, Golden Apple Fellow, High School Social Studies Teacher, Lansing, Illinois
Why New Teaching Careers Matter
In the old school, teaching is still, for the most part, a somewhat static career. Teachers may well end their career with the same title with which they began – that of “teacher.” It’s a noble title, but it doesn’t allow for official recognition or encouragement of career advancement and growth.
In the new school, all our prior guideposts – collaboration, shared leadership, and continuous learning – rely on recognizing our best teachers and empowering them to lead and support others. As individual teachers spend more time in their profession and develop specific areas of expertise, we allow them to draw upon that expertise to innovate and lead.
Singapore offers all its teachers clear, differentiated career ladders. For example, the “senior specialist track,” is a career path that culminates in employment at the Ministry of Education. And teachers use their energy, enthusiasm, and expertise to create entirely new models for teaching and learning; models that can then be scaled up elsewhere. Such leadership opportunities allow teachers to create a positive impact beyond the walls of their classroom. That is highly motivating for talented teachers who care deeply about the quality of education that all students receive.
Opportunities for ongoing professional growth, career advancement, and leadership are key to attracting and retaining talent. Among college graduates in the top third of their class, only 35% believe that teaching offers “opportunities to advance professionally.”[i] One in five under the age of 32 said that “lack of opportunity for advancement” is one of the most difficult things about being a teacher.[ii]
Advance Illinois sees evolving teaching careers as the key to elevating our most innovative, creative and forward-thinking teachers – those who continuously re-examine goals for student learning, emerging research, and innovations in pedagogy – as resources for district and state decision-making, contributing their knowledge to high-level policy conversations. To ignore the opportunity to build upon the capacity and experience of our teaching workforce in transforming our schools is nothing less than folly.
[i] Auguste, B., Kihn, P., & Miller, M.,Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top-third graduates to careers in teaching—An international and market research-based perspective (New York: McKinsey, 2010).
[ii] Coggshall, J. G., Ott, A., Berhstock, E., & Lasagna, M., Supporting teacher effectiveness: The view from Generation Y (Washington, DC: Learning Point Associates and Public Agenda, 2009), retrieved October 11, 2011, from http://bit.ly/tEmw8z
