- Establish consistent criteria for cooperating teachers: The district now requires that all cooperating teachers have a proficient or higher rating on their evaluations, have at least three years of experience, and receive positive feedback from their principal. The district also looks for teachers who have the desire to help grow new teachers, since a burned-out cooperating teacher can dissuade an aspiring teacher from entering the profession.
- Create a centralized tracking process: The new student teaching recruiter in CMS tracks placements for all student teachers and works closely with both prep programs and principals to onboard student teachers and ensure they meet all hiring requirements. Student teachers now experience a more streamlined and consistent process. The recruiter also coordinates all prep programs’ requests for placements, ensuring that all student teachers are placed in schools that are willing to receive student teachers and have high-quality cooperating teachers available. The recruiter also seeks to place multiple student teachers in each placement school. This cohort approach not only makes site visits easier for the program supervisor but also benefits student teachers, who can support each other and carpool to work.
- Improve communication: The student teaching recruiter regularly engages with key audiences and provides resources and information. This work includes:
- Newsletters to principals prior to the start of the school year detailing best practices to support student teachers and cooperating teachers (e.g., including them in the planning process, providing observations and feedback, handling concerns, considering when to bring issues to the program supervisor versus the CMS recruiter, ensuring student teachers have a positive experience).
- Newsletters to cooperating teachers detailing how to support student teachers, create quarterly check-ins with the recruiter, find resources to help with that work, etc.
- Support for student teachers, including an onboarding process, newsletters with updates, drop-in online office hours with the recruiter, and instructions to reach out to the recruiter whenever they have questions. While the recruiter can visit student teachers as needed, most student teachers receive support through video calls, which allow student teachers to attend at their convenience and discuss concerns. The recruiter holds these every month, with both a morning and an evening event.
- Regular focus groups and meetings with local institutions and neighboring districts to share areas of concern, feedback on how well the institutions are preparing student teachers, and how to adjust coursework and practice. The recruiter also attends university-sponsored events for student teachers so that they can become familiar with the recruiter and feel more comfortable reaching out when the need arises.
- Keep hiring top of mind: The CMS recruitment team connects with student teachers in October and March to discuss employment opportunities in the district. They emphasize how the district supports beginning teachers by offering mentor teachers, professional development for the first three years, a sign-on bonus, and bonuses if they work in certain content areas. The student teaching recruiter also holds a “student teacher to first year teacher meeting,” where they meet with student teachers to answer questions about the hiring process and becoming a first-year teacher. The team also offers personalized support in navigating the hiring process; if the student teacher cannot find a position at the school where they’re student teaching, the team helps them find the right fit at another school.
Outcomes
The district has seen a “definite” increase in hiring rates among student teachers, though that has slowed the last few years as more districts have been hiring.
“This has changed the overall experience for student teachers, and made it a more positive one.” Mojdeh Harlan, former manager of talent acquisitions (now a principal in the district)
Advice
Harlan recommends starting this work by streamlining the placement and onboarding of student teachers and identifying a person in the district’s central office to serve as a point of contact. These steps will create a more consistent experience for every student teacher, which will hopefully increase the likelihood that they join the district.