The Southeastern Center for Teaching Quality has devised a 鈥渢ool kit鈥� with resources, examples, and suggestions for addressing teachers鈥� working conditions. Among the strategies:
Time:
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鈥� Schools should involve community volunteers in field trips or extracurricular activities to free up teachers鈥� time.
鈥� To set aside more time for professional development, principals can bank teachers鈥� existing early-release days for longer spans of training.
Empowerment:
鈥� Teachers can volunteer to serve on schoolwide committees.
鈥� Principals should seek out teachers who don鈥檛 normally take leadership roles to be involved in decisionmaking.
Leadership:
The tool kit is now available.
鈥� The community can advocate for principal professional-development programs.
鈥� Teachers should involve principals in 鈥渁ction research鈥� projects and inform them of the results.
鈥� Principals should encourage teachers to take leadership roles at the school.
Professional Development:
鈥� Museums, businesses, and universities should establish 鈥渢eacher in residence鈥� and 鈥渢eacher on loan鈥� programs to immerse teachers in current professional content knowledge and scholarship.
鈥� Teachers should each craft a personal-improvement plan.
鈥� Districts should require schools to complete assessments of their professional-development.
Facilities and Resources:
鈥� Policymakers should review school funding models to ensure that enough continuing resources are available for clean, safe, and well-maintained school buildings.
鈥� Principals should recognize teachers as professionals and provide private or semi-private office space for storing belongings or accessing a phone or computer.
