Talent Management System Resources
How to Retain Effective Teachers through Teacher Leadership
Summary
Highly effective teachers are school systems’ best tools for helping students succeed. Retaining effective teachers requires schools and districts to implement specific strategies aimed at retention. There are many specialized paths that school systems can create for teachers’ various interests and strengths. This paper, from The Decade Plus Teaching Career, highlights three strategies for retaining the best teachers for a lifelong career in the classroom.
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District and building leadership teams might choose to read and discuss this paper and complete the reflection guide found in Supporting Resources in order to implement strategies for retaining effective teachers.
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McCann, C., Zuflacht, S., & Gilbert, T. (2015). How to retain effective teachers through teacher leadership. The Decade Plus Teaching Career.
How to Use ‘Stay Conversations’ to Keep Employees Engaged
Summary
Are you looking for low cost ways to retain staff? This article provides the what, why and how of stay conversations as a way to engage and retain staff. Stay conversations are conversations between the leader and teacher with the purpose of learning more about what is important in the workplace, interests, and aspirations of the teacher. The article outlines a process to conduct stay conversations as well as some potential stay conversation question types.
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This article may be used at multiple levels of the educational system. ISD consultants may use it to support districts in developing strategies for retaining teachers within the Talent Management system. A district might use the article to start conversations around low cost teacher retention strategies and ways to build and model relationships in the Talent Management system.
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Johnson, L. C. and C., & Johnson, L. C. and C. (2019, August 22). How to use ‘stay conversations’ to keep employees engaged. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/how-to-use-stay-conversations-to-keep-employees-engaged.aspx
Planning Teacher Stay Conversations. (n.d.). Tntp.org. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://tntp.org/teacher-talent-toolbox/view/planning-teacher-stay-conversations
Facilitation Guide for Teacher Mentoring and Induction
Summary
Mentoring and induction contributes to the success of beginning teachers, increases student achievement, and leads to improvements in teacher retention. Mentoring and induction programs equip beginning teachers with the necessary support to ensure their professional growth and effectiveness. This resource from the Mississippi Department of Education supports districts with flexibility in developing their own formal mentorship and induction programs.
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District and building leadership teams might consider utilizing the Guide for Mentoring and Induction and/or visit the Mississippi Department of Education website link (found in Supporting Resources) in order to systematically develop a new, or enhance an existing, mentoring and induction program within their school and/or district.
It is important to point out that several of the resources are specific to Mississippi and would need to be adapted for your state.
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Mentoring and Induction (Entire resource)
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Mississippi Department of Education Mentoring and Induction. https://www.mdek12.org/OTL/OTC/TMP
Competency-Aligned Teacher Interview Questions and Activities
Summary
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has a wide range of resources for educational leaders focused on selecting and developing early-career educators. With a focus on educator competencies, TNTP developed a set of educator competencies, along with a list of possible interview questions to help understand the skills of applicants around these competencies. The document lists the broad set of competencies, and for each, identifies descriptive criteria, possible indicators that would be identified during the selection or hiring process, possible interview questions around each competency, and observable activities (such as role-plays, action tasks, or presentations) that would illustrate the level of competence of each candidate.
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Leadership and/or Talent Management teams might choose to use this resource along with the additional resources provided in order to create or refine their teacher selection process.
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Teacher Talent Toolbox (2020). Competency-aligned interview questions and activities. TNTP, Inc., available at https://tntp.org/teacher-talent-toolbox/view/competency-aligned-interview-questions-and-activities.
Creating a Talent Management Calendar Protocol
Summary
This resource supports districts with limited time and people with a protocol for creating a calendar of critical talent management actions. Talent calendars reflect the district’s annual goals and organize the activities leaders can focus on at critical times of the school year. The calendar helps leaders make decisions about how and when to allocate resources, ensures that the talent work is done at the most ideal time, and allocates time to look ahead and plan implementation of the work.
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A district leadership team or talent management team might use this resource to develop their own talent calendar. The team may want to consult their district goals and talent management data to determine a talent management overarching goal or goals. The team might then want to reflect on what talent management activities are currently in place and then modify as needed (to align with the overarching goal) and follow the protocol steps to create the talent calendar.
The resource also includes ways to support the calendar becoming a useful tool by engaging stakeholders. The team may want to consider ways to embed the talent calendar into current meeting and communication structures. Additional resources to support a talent calendar can be found on the EdFuel Talent Playbook website.
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Adapted from: https://www.edfuel.org/how-we-work/edfueltalentplaybook/
Attracting and Retaining Teaching Talent
Summary
This 9:65 video is one in a series of episodes from the Missiouri Leadership Development System [MLDS] On-Demand Principal Leadership Series. This specific episode focuses on four attributes of a school that the author believes “will attract and retain more than its fair share of skillful talented teachers”.
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District leaders may want to first complete the Pre-Viewing Worksheet individually in order to reflect on what is currently in place to retain and attract skillful teachers. District and leadership teams might then choose to view the video for suggestions and identification of areas in which the district can improve on. After viewing the video, district and leadership teams might consider dialoging around the questions presented on the Post-Viewing Worksheet in order to further the conversation about attracting and retaining teacher talent.
This video might also be used to introduce the conversation around attracting and retaining teaching talent.
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Missouri Leadership Development System MLDS. (2021, January 21). MLDS episode 4: Attracting and retaining teaching talent. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3w6ifqMAT4