Fostering Teacher Success: A Blueprint for School Belonging
30 Abril 2024 - 12:41PM
Pace Center for Girls (Pace), a nationally recognized model that
provides education, counseling, training and advocacy for girls and
young women, released a study, "Helping Teachers Succeed: A
Framework Rooted in Building School Belonging for Teachers of
Students with High-Risk Factors,” which finds building school
belonging can be an antidote to the teacher shortage. Developed in
partnership with MilwayPLUS social impact advisors, education
experts, and peer organizations, the comprehensive study emphasizes
the critical importance to teacher retention of fostering a sense
of school belonging, particularly for teachers working with
students with high-risk factors.
"At Pace, we have evidence via our annual girls feedback survey
that girls’ success highly correlates with a consistent, caring
adult relationship, and that a teacher’s satisfaction depends on
relationships not only with our girls but with other team members,
leaders, and a supportive community," says Mary Marx, CEO and
President of Pace Center for Girls.
The white paper delves into its core finding that the
much-studied outcomes that teachers want for their students are the
same ones that they want for themselves: competence, autonomy,
purpose, and belonging. Among these, the research found that
belonging, in school and community, is the most critical to
fostering teachers' retention and satisfaction. With the national
teacher shortage accelerating since the pandemic’s onset, effective
support systems to achieve these outcomes for teachers are
fundamental to bridge the gap and improve outcomes for
students.
The study also details how the first three outcomes for teachers
bolster the fourth. As Professor Marcia Lyles from Columbia
University Teachers College asserts, "Belonging doesn’t come out of
nowhere. Building teachers’ competence, autonomy, and shared
purpose within a school community fosters a sense of
belonging."
Case studies highlighted in the paper include strong practices
of school and teacher support organizations including Pace Center
for Girls, Youth Villages residential schools, AMIkids, KIPP
Schools, Hull Services/William Roper Hull School, City Year of
Greater Boston, EL Education, Communities in Schools, West London
Zone. Insights also come from teacher training organizations at
Columbia University, Miami-Dade College, University of Florida,
Simon Fraser University. These institutions offer ways to
strengthen weaker links in teacher supports, including
collaborative professional development and lesson planning,
trauma-informed classroom management, well-being supports and
professional learning communities in schools and across a
community.
Solutions proposed in the paper include creating learning
communities within and beyond schools, prioritizing mental health
supports for teachers, and accessing culture-building capacity
through partnerships with nonprofit organizations like EL
Education, City Year, and Communities in Schools to build mutual
support and accountability among teachers and students.
The study also offers a blueprint for change that Pace developed
out of the research and is applying to build teacher competence,
autonomy, purpose and belonging, with early indicators of increased
teacher retention.
For more information and to access the full white
paper, please visit here.
To register for the webinar that will delve into the paper's
findings, visit here.
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About Pace Center for Girls
Founded in 1985, Pace provides free year-round middle and high
school academics, case management, counseling, and life skills
development in a safe and supportive environment that recognizes
and deals with past trauma and builds upon girls’ individual
strengths. Dedicated to meeting the social, emotional, and
education needs of girls, Pace has a successful and proven program
model that has changed the life trajectory of more than 40,000
girls and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading advocates
for girls in need. For more information on Pace Center for Girls,
visit www.pacecenter.org.
About MilwayPLUS social impact advisors
Milway Consulting collaborates with and advises philanthropy and
nonprofits with a focus on research, publishing and content
strategies for funders, and innovation and growth strategies for
content creators. Katie Smith Milway, principal of Milway
Consulting and a senior advisor at The Bridgespan Group, has a
background in journalism, nonprofit management, strategy
consulting, and governance. Her work in sustainable development
across four continents includes program design and measurement,
donor development and communications, and organizational
development.
- Helping Teachers Succeed: A Framework Rooted in Building School
Belonging
Kendall Toothe
Pace Center for Girls
904‑439‑3998
kendall.toothe@pacecenter.org