Principal Investigator
Kelly Kovacic Duran – Education First
Project Description
This is a landscape scan of strategic staffing models, conducted by Education First, which aimed to learn how to better meet the needs of students by redesigning critical adult roles and ensuring that those roles are attractive, sustainable, and professionally rewarding. As part of this work, the team identified features of potentially effective models and bright spots of strategic school staffing.
Research Questions
- How can we better meet the needs of future students, particularly those most marginalized in our current system, by redesigning critical adult roles and ensuring that those roles are attractive, sustainable, and professionally rewarding?
Key Findings
The authors of the scan developed a conceptual framework identifying six features of effective strategic staffing models: distributed leadership, compensation structures differentiated by role, innovative teaming structures, extended teacher reach, staffing structures that intentionally cultivate teacher pipelines, and technology that optimizes educator roles/time. They also identified four enabling conditions theorized to support the successful implementation of strategic staffing: strong and equity-focused leadership, equitable and sustainable school funding, flexible state and district CMO policies, and access to high-quality technical assistance. There were three primary types of models the team identified as potentially effective for organizing teacher talent in more transformational ways:
- changing how teams are structured to better support students;
- leveraging broader pools of talent to teach students; and
- helping teachers optimize technology.
There were also a diverse set of states, cities, and school networks beginning to adopt these practices, including Texas, Denver, and the Third Future Schools charter network.
Study Citation
Duran, K.K., Friedman, J., Hodge, J., Lopez Morgan, R., & Williams, A.M. (2023). Strategic school staffing landscape scan: Transforming school staffing to improve student learning and reimagine the role of teachers. Education First Internal Summary of Findings.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
