Keeping Quality Teachers: The Art of Retaining General and Special Education Teachers

Presenters

Karen Mikkelsen (Primary)

Program Associate
NERRC at WestEd

Description

In this interactive presentation, Karen Mikkelsen, Program Associate with the Northeast Regional Resource Center at WestEd, will provide an overview of Keeping Quality Teachers: The Art of Retaining General and Special Education Teachers. This powerful, user-friendly tool provides school leaders with resources to address retention of all teachers, but especially those in special education. It contains a framework for action that includes practice that, if implemented, will promote the retention of quality teachers. School and district leaders at all levels can use the resources and strategies to strengthen their efforts to ensure that students learn with quality teachers.

The document is organized into six sections: 1) Builds the case and provides research to assist stakeholders in understanding why retention is such a compelling issue; 2) Focuses on the improvement of working conditions as the primary reason for teachers leaving; 3) Provides strategies for administrative support at the district and building levels; 4) Emphasizes the importance of induction and mentoring programs as part of a retention initiative, providing several model programs and strategies; 5) Articulates the key role played by institutions of higher education in supporting recruitment and retention; and 6) Provides implementation and evaluation suggestions for states and local school districts. Each section has a series of related resources and a list of references to support teacher retention efforts.

Target audiences for this publication include state and local administrators of general and special education including: superintendents, curriculum coordinators, principals, special education coordinators, and personnel development and training personnel.

Keeping Quality Teachers: The Art of Retaining General and Special Education Teachers is available for download in its entirety. If you are participating in this event, it is recommended that you download and read the Introduction and Chapter 1 before the event.

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