One major aspect of improving educational outcomes for at-risk students requires high-quality instruction provided by teams of well-trained and skilled teachers. However, sustaining such a workforce of teachers is challenging due high turnover in the schools with the most challenges. An in-depth analysis of new teacher supports performed by Education Resource Strategies, Inc. researchers David Rosenberg and Karen Hawley Miles and outlined in Growing Great Teachers reveals that investing in more strategic preparation for new teachers can improve learning outcomes.
The report offers five recommendations for training new teachers, which if implemented, could increase students’ learning by an average of 3.5 to 4.2 months in one year compared to what research indicates they would otherwise learn. Rosenberg and Miles recommend that schools work with high-quality teacher preparation partners, place well-supported new teachers in otherwise hard-to-staff positions, create multi-year retention incentives, reallocate existing school investments in favor of targeted support for new teachers, and design schools to support new teachers.