11 Aug 2016
Service

Client Services: Teacher Leadership and Career Pathways

Teachers shouldn’t have to leave the classroom and become administrators to advance in their career. Effective teachers need opportunities to grow in their role across their entire career.

AIR knows the impact teacher leaders can have on a school and district’s climate and performance. AIR works with organizations, states, and districts to research and support teacher leadership structures.

Related Work

30 Apr 2014
Report

From Good to Great: Exemplary Teachers Share Perspectives on Increasing Teacher Effectiveness Across the Career Continuum

Recognizing that teachers are the single most important school-level factor influencing student achievement, policy leaders have invested tremendous public resources in new systems to both assess and address teacher effectiveness. Yet the research that informs teacher effectiveness policy leaves many important questions unanswered. This report helps to fill these gaps through a first-of-its-kind exploratory survey of National and State Teachers of the Year.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
20 Mar 2016
Report

Great to Influential: Teacher Leaders’ Roles in Supporting Instruction

For years, education leaders have sought to pinpoint how teachers become effective in order to better leverage teachers’ impact on student learning and improve student outcomes. This report describes the characteristics of teacher leaders, the roles teacher leaders take in improving teacher practice, and the supports and barriers to teacher leadership, concluding with specific policy recommendations for supporting teacher leadership in state and local contexts.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
12 May 2015
Blog Post

Real Teacher Appreciation: Let Them Lead

In the first in a series of blog posts on teacher leadership, Gretchen Weber, managing researcher at AIR, argues that we honor teachers by letting them lead. Teacher appreciation, she argues, means schools and districts must commit to creating teacher leadership structures that are strong, authentic, and valued.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
23 Jun 2015
Blog Post

Teacher Leaders: Many Titles, Big Impacts

In this blog post, the second in a series about teacher leadership, AIR's Gretchen Weber describes the complexity of defining "teacher leaders."
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Principal Preparation and Performance, Teacher Preparation and Performance
22 Oct 2015
Blog Post

The Future of Teaching Starts Now

What does the classroom of the future look like? In this blog post, Gretchen Weber explores educator roles that go beyond teacher and principal, arguing that new roles that emphasize leadership skills and precise expertise can motivate current and future teachers to stay in the profession and help them thrive and flourish.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
1 Apr 2011
Report

Workplaces That Support High-Performing Teaching and Learning: Insights From Generation Y Teachers

Generation Y public school teachers—those born between 1977 and 1995—have been serving students for nearly a decade now, represent an increasingly large proportion of the teaching workforce. Five key insights about Gen Y require workplaces that ensure teachers receive regular feedback on their effectiveness; support peer learning and shared practice; recognize (and reward) high performance; have fair, rigorous, and meaningful evaluation systems; and leverage technology intelligently to enhance performance.

Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Professional Development in Education, Teacher Preparation and Performance
19 Feb 2009
Report

Leading Gen Y Teachers: Emerging Strategies for School Leaders

As Baby Boom teachers begin to retire, a new generation of teachers is taking on the classroom. Generation Y teachers—those born between 1977 and 1995—are young, technologically savvy, and interested in global outcomes.

Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
19 Sep 2009
Report

Holding on to a New Generation of Teachers

Like school districts across the nation, Vancouver School District is confronting the challenge of finding, employing, and retaining great teachers in an extremely challenging and competitive labor market. This report describes the systemic model it is using, consisting of changes in compensation, extended duties, assessment and evaluation, professional growth and development, recruitment, interviewing, and mentoring and induction.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
19 Sep 2012
Report

Retaining Teacher Talent: Convergence and Contradictions in Teachers’ Perceptions of Policy Reform Ideas

What do teachers themselves think of policies that address identifying and retaining effective teachers? What conclusions should reformers draw from teachers’ perceptions? This report suggests that what teachers think are good indicators of effectiveness—and what they think will make them more effective—are not always aligned with what policymakers or researchers think.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance
19 Oct 2013
Brief

Creating Coherence: Connecting Teacher Evaluation and Support Systems to the Common Core

This Special Issues Brief, and related materials, from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders aims to help state and regional staff engage districts to create coherence between the Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluation, and professional learning. The process of making meaning builds an understanding of the reforms and increases district capacity to support high-quality implementation.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Teacher Preparation and Performance

Further Reading