Strategies for Teacher Leaders
Leaders in this category include all teachers, in particular those with formal roles as members of school or district leadership teams, whose voices and perspectives are shared and included in decision-making.
To see strategies, make a selection below.
Cultivating an interest in becoming an educator
Cultivating an interest in becoming an educator
- Advocate for, support, and participate in a region-wide effort to promote teaching and educational administration as professions.
- Advocate for the development of partnerships that provide training to become paraprofessionals.
- Join and advocate for affinity groups for educators of color that include and promote pre-service and paraeducators.
- Support and serve as a mentor or advisor to candidates of color.
- Seek out opportunities to include the perspectives of people of color in the curriculum and in school programming, and seek support from outside organizations where necessary.
- Support and encourage student participation in education career pathways.
- Build relationships with students; identify barriers to access and interest in education and work to remove them.
- Advocate for engagement with communities of color and multilingual communities around pathways to teacher education programs.
Providing access to and supporting the completion of education preparation programs
Providing access to and supporting the completion of education preparation programs
- Advocate for removing barriers to accessing Pell Grants for adult education enrollees to participate in education courses leading to certification.
- Advocate for antiracist and anti-bias training for all educators.
- Support the participation in antiracist training of all personnel involved in supervising educator preparation candidates.
- Advocate for the creation of a micro-credentialing or endorsement for culturally responsive teaching (either at the pre-service or inservice level).
- Advocate for educator preparation programs to annually report on the percentage of faculty and students of color in their programs.
- Advocate to require anti-bias training for all teacher mentors (supporting prospective educators), education faculty, sponsoring teachers, coaches.
- Advocate for the completion of annual surveys of educator preparation by their stakeholders on indicators of progress related to cultural competency.
- Participate in annual surveys of progress for all educator preparation programs with whom the district partners.
- Advocate for partnerships and opportunities for college students in their first two years to have experiences in your school or district.
- Partner with local colleges to develop and implement mentorship programs.
- Create, join, or advocate for affinity groups for educators of color that include and mentor prospective educators.
Streamlining certification and licensure
Streamlining certification and licensure
- Advocate for shifting away from traditional examinations (such as Praxis) as requirements for certification toward alternative ways for candidates to demonstrate skills and competencies, such as portfolios, demonstrations, or expanded waivers.
- Advocate for implementing full certification reciprocity across the region.
- Advocate for streamlining and making obtaining a license and endorsements easy and clear.
- Advocate for opportunities for groups of educators who may be displaced (from other countries) to become certified.
Recruiting and hiring diverse educators
Recruiting and hiring diverse educators
- Advocate for legislation to subsidize moving expenses for racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse educators.
- Advocate for and support districts participating in state recruitment and hiring initiatives.
- Participate in the review and revision of recruitment and hiring processes, procedures, and policies.
- Support the collection and reporting of demographic information of hired candidates and retirees.
- Advocate for the creation of professional learning networks for people making hiring decisions; members of these networks should share ideas, strategies, resources, and support while also engaging in anti-bias education.
- Support and participate in the design and implementation of a district plan to diversify the educator workforce.
- Advocate for the creation of a position at the state education agency to support the diversification of the educator workforce, promote stronger collaboration across agencies, and support the development and sharing of resources.
- Advocate for the inclusion of educators and community members of color on hiring committees.
Supporting, retaining, and promoting diverse educators
Supporting, retaining, an promoting diverse educators
- Support the adoption of a statewide goal for increasing the number of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse educators.
- Participate in mentor programs, support organizations, or affinity groups for people of color.
- Advocate for the examination of the role that salary discrepancy plays in the recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement of educators of color.
- Train school leaders in equity, antiracist, and anti-bias practices.
- Join regional networks to advocate for diversifying the educator workforce, as well as the sharing of resources and best practices.
Explore Strategies by Sector
Back to the Table of Contents
To return to the main menu of this report, please click the button below.
Table of Contents