New Issue of NASBE Standard Reimagines the Roles of Teachers and Leaders

Alexandria, VA— Amid national discussions of ways to recruit and keep teachers and leaders in a demanding profession, the May edition of NASBE’s State Education Standard highlights the many ways states are restructuring staffing and instruction to make teaching more manageable and rewarding. From teacher residencies to revolutionizing the principalship, authors in this edition reimagine how the roles of teachers and leaders can uplift school and student success.

Several articles cover one such innovation, known as strategic staffing. John Luczak and his colleagues at Education First paint the landscape of what it is, where it has been tried and why, and the state policy levers that facilitate it. Researchers Lennon Audrain and Richard Ingersoll of Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, detail their study of the impact on retention of a team-based staffing model developed at ASU. They find that, when combined with increased agency, the model is particularly effective at keeping teachers in classrooms.

Public Impact’s Bryan Hassel and Sharon Barrett describe the principles underlying the strategic staffing model they have worked with many districts to implement over the past decade and a half, and they relate what district leaders observe about its impact.

Julie Fitz and her colleagues from Learning Policy Institute share research on teacher residencies, an aspect of strategic staffing that is central to initiatives in California and Texas.

Titilayo Tinubu Ali at Bellwether underscores what the US Education Department says in its guidance around strategic staffing: States have always had permission to use federal Title II funding to launch it. She ticks off a number of barriers in state policy to making strategic staffing a reality in more schools.

On the topic of AI and teaching, Bree Dusseault and her colleagues from the Center on Reinventing Public Education share what they have learned so far from early AI adopters on how teachers are using AI to simplify burdensome tasks, allowing them to spend more of their time on instruction. They explore the state role in ensuring that the risks of AI are mitigated even as teachers are empowered to take advantage of its benefits.

Turning to the role of the principal, Megan Bennett and Chelsi Chang of the Aspen Institute’s Education and Society Program reprise their work on big ideas for strengthening and supporting school principals. They offer five ways state policy can help principals and myriad tasks for state boards in bringing them to fruition. In an interview with The Wallace Foundation’s Rotunda Floyd-Cooper, she reflects on the evolving role of the principal and the opportunity for state boards to redefine it and strengthen preparation and support.

Read and share the “Reimagining the Roles of Teachers and Leaders” issue of the State Education Standard.

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