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Knowing, Engaging, Celebrating: What Leaders can Do Now to Retain Teachers Tomorrow

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  By:   Jenna Bartkiewicz, Partner, Education Elements   Ms. Evans had, by most demonstrable measures, a successful year. If you had popped by her classroom on any day of the week, you would have likely marked nearly all the boxes on whatever checklist you entered with: student engagement was high, but not disorderly. Kids supported each other and worked collaboratively as they grappled with rigorous content; and it was clear students had built plenty of endurance throughout the year: they could work long stretches without interruption, enabling Ms. Evans to conference with students at regular intervals. You could often find her after school diligently planning lessons on her own. Unsurprisingly, she quietly saw her student data begin to soar, and expectations were high as state testing came into view. Though scores hadn’t come back yet, students reported the tests being a breeze: “Way easier than what Ms. Evans makes us do”, reported one student with a sly smile.   Then, later
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Leading Up While Managing the Unexpected?

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   Leading Up While Managing the Unexpected? By: Elvis Epps, Principal, Lake Worth Community High School One of my favorite television shows was Star Trek as a child. No one on television was as cool and calm as Captain James T. Kirk. In every show, Captain Kirk would end up fighting an alien force. His primary duties as the captain of the USS Enterprise were to lead and protect his crew and his ship. If you were a fan of the show, you could probably finish this line from Captain Kirk. “Scotty, I need more ______! That’s right, and he always needed more power. Scotty would always respond, “Jim, I don’t have more power to give.” Captain Kirk would order him to find it wherever he could. Captain Kirk never accepted Scotty’s answers or excuses for not having extra power. Captain Kirk wanted more power, and that’s what Scotty usually came up with. Scotty never failed to deliver more power. The shows were exciting and memorable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always hold when leading an organi
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Teacher Recruitment and Retention: From Principal Practice to Teacher Perceptions

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  By: Cynthia L. Johnson As the number of teachers that leave a school increases, the struggle to recruit highly-qualified teachers also increases. At the same time, the quality of the teacher workforce decreases, negatively impacting student achievement.1 Nearly half of all teachers that enter education today will leave within the first five years of teaching. Those that teach in low-socioeconomic schools are twice as likely to leave. This continuous revolving door is detrimental to students, staff, and education as a whole. The study, Phenomenological Study: Recruitment and Retention of Highly Qualified Teachers in North Florida Title I Elementary Schools by Cynthia Johnson, reviewed literature regarding the background of teacher attrition and conducted a qualitative analysis on the best practices of principals of high-performing Title I schools in their efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. Through principal and teacher interviews, the study found a positive relat
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Five Lessons Learned as an Educational Leader

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    Five Lessons Learned as an Educational Leader By Richard Surrency, Superintendent, Putnam County Schools   I am the elected superintendent of the Putnam County School District serving in my sixth year. Since my first day in office, beginning in November of 2016, our district has focused on improving student achievement and on time graduation for our 10,500 students.   In 2015, only 54.9% of our seniors graduated on time. Through a strategic initiative, we improved the graduation rate to 92.5% in 2021. This is the largest increase in Florida during the same time period.   In 2017, 11 of our 18 schools were receiving state turnaround support to improve school performance as determined by Florida’s school grading system. Our instructional team led an initiative to improve school culture and standards-based core instruction and intervention. At this time, we have zero schools receiving state turnaround support.   These improvements highlight the importance of leadership both at the dis
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A School is Only as Strong as its Community, and a Community is Only as Strong as its School!

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   By: Adam Lane, Principal, Haines City High School A school is only as strong as its community and a community is only as strong as its school! I want to thank the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) Four Corners Woman's Club for having me as their guest speaker, but also for their dedication to community improvement, volunteer services, and supporting my high school students in need of clothing, hygiene products, and school supplies.  https://gfwcfourcorners.org There was always a need for basic school supplies on our campus, but the more we got to know our kids, the more we discovered the additional needs they have. The school staff and community clubs came together to make a positive impact. This initiative began by identifying the exact needs and then supplying the resources and materials necessary to meet those needs. It’s all about students first. Your community school must serve as a home away from home and a support system, and part of that commitment is making
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Focusing on the Mental Well-Being of Our Youth

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   By: Dr. Moira Sweeting-Miller, Assistant Principal, Monarch High School, Broward County    Today, I want to focus on the mental well-being of our youth. When you look at what takes place in schools, we focus on reading fluency and math fluency all to help the students grow up to be productive citizens. But what about mental health fluency? This is a much-needed part of the puzzle and probably the most important part. Since COVID, we have seen a lot of focus on the social and emotional well-being of not only adults but students. Both adults and students experienced the same trauma during the pandemic but as adults we know when we need self-care and know what to do to take care of ourselves. Young adults do not have that awareness and struggle when things are not going well. They find it hard to pinpoint the cause of their angst and thus cannot help themselves through the emotions. This is where mental health fluency comes into play. Mental health fluency involves teaching a child tec
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Leading Change During Challenging Times

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   By: Carla L. Sparks, Ed.D.,   Faculty Lead and Program Director of Educational Leadership Programs at National Louis University’s Florida Regional Center   In my current leadership role, I have spent countless hours during the last two years on the phone and on zoom talking with teacher leaders, assistant principals, principals, principal coaches, school district leaders, charter school administrators, and educational leaders of service provider organizations. These conversations have ranged in emotion from utter despair to gritting teeth until the terror passes, to joy and enthusiasm about leading change. I have had conversations with leaders who are exhausted physically and emotionally and others who are energized and raring to make things happen. Some have cried and they shook their heads while others thrust their arms in the air and laughed. I have wondered about the range of thoughts and emotions among the leaders with whom I work. I have thought to myself: How is this broad ra
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