Teachers and school/district leaders are needing more support and help with the way(s) they react and interact with others, but they currently are limited by time, resources, and lack of people to turn to.

These were the major findings from a recent survey that provides a snapshot into the issues and dilemmas that educators are facing. When we take a step back and review the survey results, it isn’t a surprise.

For the longest time, we have provided professional development, training, readings and coursework on the instructional or logistical side of education and leadership. Most educators haven’t been on the receiving end of learning experiences on the human side of education and leadership – the ways we act, react, and interact with others. The ways to develop and build trust. The way to form a vision and grow a culture. The way to bring ourselves to work and harness our humanness.

Time plays a role. Or rather the lack of time – not enough time, yet too many things to do – was listed as the major disruptor in building effective school environments. When we run our schools as a list of to-dos that we check off until the next day, we lose the opportunity to bring others in, align actions, and focus on relationships. Time (or lack of it) was taken up with interactions with others, in the school, the community and with the district office.  

Most Time-Consuming Activities

• Communicating with school-based people (staff, students, etc.)                                            
• Communicating with non-school-based people (parents, families, local community, etc.)      
• Responding to directives from district office and/or state departments                                                

And almost every respondent indicated ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ that many of the challenges at school involve dealing with people in some way.

It should make sense, therefore, for teachers and leaders to focus on the way they react and interact to improve these interactions and reduce the amount of stress (and perhaps time) associated with them.

But when educators are asked where they go for help, the majority went to their peers or a trusted colleague.

Where to go to for help

• Peer/Principal colleague
• Trusted colleague                                                                                                

They didn’t however typically seek help from their  

• Senior leadership team
• Mentor
• Professional coach / other professional.                                                                                          

That may be because they didn’t feel that they their senior leadership was willing or able to help; or that they didn’t have access to mentors or coaches. Teachers often go to senior teachers and leadership for instructional and curricula questions, but it appears that they are less eager to approach them for non-instructional matters.

At this time of year, I hear a common refrain from school leaders I know: 1) This work is challenging, 2) We have a plan for student success, and yet 3) There is a lot more we need in order to deliver on our promise of a high-quality, equitable education for every student. These leaders launched the year with an inspiring vision for creating vibrant schools where all students are engaged in meaningful learning, feel loved, and want to come to school each day. There may have been times where this vision came close to reality.

As we head into the middle of the year, however, gaps often emerge. Student culture may become strained, faculty and staff may feel tired and frustrated, lessons aren’t as strong as they had hoped, and/or the highest needs students aren’t getting the support they need. Which raises the question: What do I do right now? 

In my role as the Vice President of Innovation and Impact at Relay Graduate School of Education, the best part of my job is the opportunity to find, study, and share what is working in schools across our country. One of the moves that we see our most effective leaders do at this moment of the year is lead a strategic reset on a key area of the school that – if improved – will have a significant positive impact on student learning and experience right now.  

Invariably, these leaders doubled down on one focus area: They identified a moment of the school day to improve, they clarified a vision for success, identified high leverage action steps, and created a plan to make it happen.  

‍In doing so, these leaders carried out what we call a “Reset.” A Reset is a narrowly focused initiative, planned and executed to have a meaningful impact in a short period of time. It’s different from long-term strategic planning, which may involve multiple areas of improvement, significant structural changes, and the reallocation of resources. A Reset is an evidence-backed plan to tackle one key area, now — and see results. Through our leadership programs, we’ve coached thousands of school, district, and network leaders through the Reset process. Here are the insights and practices we’ve gleaned: 

 
Prioritize. What equity gaps are most keeping you up at night? Many leaders find that while it may be tempting to address numerous areas for improvement, choosing to prioritize one main concern to make real progress toward their vision for equity is most impactful. An “equity gap,” is the room for improvement in a school’s efforts to provide all children what they need to develop to their full potential. Consider whether these gaps are about student or staff culture, or about instruction gaps.  

Clarify the vision. What specific success would you like to see by the end of the Reset period? When plans fall, often it’s because the initial vision for success wasn’t specific enough. You’re far more likely to succeed if you spell out, in vivid detail, what your plan will look like. These details serve two functions: 1) They help you and your team to get clear on a set of shared expectations; and 2) They act as a forcing function when creating your plan for implementation. 

Determine key actions. How can your Reset move the needle right now, starting as soon as tomorrow, in ways that will have a meaningful impact? Your Reset plan is unlikely to involve significant adjustments in your school’s allocation of resources; those kinds of changes fall within the realm of strategic planning. But you can think of steps you can take within your current structures that can drive noticeable improvements in teaching and learning. What’s within your grasp–and locus of control–that can make a significant difference for students and staff in the immediate future? 

Create the plan. Who will do what when, and using what tools? We’ve noticed two things about school leader plans that consistently succeed in achieving their objectives for their schools: 1) Their plans are highly specific and 2) Their plans address all that needs to happen for the plan to be successful. Nothing is vague or left to chance. Team members should first brainstorm ideas together but at some point one leader needs to sit down and complete a clean draft, then share it back for additional team feedback before finalizing. Reset planning sessions emphasize four components that are essential for any initiative to succeed: capacity building; investment building; measuring impact; timing.  

A key part of the Reset process is to approach it with the right orientation: acknowledging the realities of the moment while maintaining faith in our ultimate success is central to the work of school leaders. Leading schools is hard work in the best of times, and of late even more so. So long as our students are in our schools we have the power – and responsibility – to make a positive difference. The Reset process is designed to help you do so, so that you and your team may gain some clarity about what steps you will take tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, to move you closer to finishing this all-important marathon that we’re in. 

Related:
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Working in the education design space collectively for 26 years, we understand students and teachers need environments to support learning. Classrooms should be designed for listening and engagement; study spaces should be calm and quiet. And yet, these environments are typically noisy and full of unintentional distractions – and overlook design elements that facilitate focus.

Besides noise reduction, students require a harmonious balance among lighting, temperature, air quality, and intentional design to maximize their focus throughout their long days. Ninety-two percent of teachers believe classroom design has a strong impact on students’ learning, and carpet, color, and furnishings are just a few elements that can help improve education spaces.

Understanding the need to balance these components, we always approach education design by drafting inclusive spaces with adaptable features. It’s important that designs address today’s modern classroom demands and demonstrate how designers and architects can create a comforting, student-centered design. By integrating noise-absorbing elements for focused learning, supporting classroom productivity and creativity with color, and reconfiguring the classroom layout to inspire collaboration, students and teachers alike are better positioned to succeed.

Optimizing Acoustics

Many classrooms have a speech intelligibility rating of 75 percent or less, and 50 percent of newly qualified teachers suffer voice loss, attributed in part to classrooms with poor acoustics. Noise, echoes, reverberation, and room modes all interfere with students’ ability to listen and accurately understand speech. Inaccurate hearing disrupts concentration, classroom behavior, and content consumption.

Despite being a prominent issue that greatly transforms learning, acoustics have been a neglected aspect of classroom design. As designers, architects, and educators, it’s important to consider all design components that influence classroom noise. Integrating fabric-wrapped acoustic wall panels, ceiling tiles that rate highly on the Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) scale, and opting for softer design materials and decorations are all key noise absorption elements. These design details all attribute to improved academic performance and encourage focused energy.

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When designing classrooms, we use a combination of these methods, avoiding hard surfaces where possible, and choosing soft furniture and carpet for extra sound absorption properties. Designers can also tailor classroom design with carpet cushion backing options that reduce noisy distractions and absorb the impacts of the heavily trafficked floor.

Integrating Color for Purposeful Movement

Color is also an influential aspect of classroom learning as it affects behavior, performance, and intention. From saturated hues that signal fun and play to muted neutrals that communicate calm and concentration, colors and the patterns that house them influence behavior. Identifying the desired energy in the room determines what colors and patterns to use in furniture, decorations, exposed structures, and flooring. Designers should welcome colorful chairs and posters in play areas, while desks should mirror a minimalist aesthetic to encourage student concentration. The use of color in designated areas signals to students the behavior expected of them.

For example, implementing a pod layout in education projects can create collaboration among the different grade levels. Using colors to designate specific grades or areas of the building enables students to know where they should be and subconsciously signals their behavioral expectations. For example, the first grade classrooms could have yellow accents, second graders green, and third graders red, while common spaces incorporate the colors of adjacent and combined grade groups. In these classroom areas that require more focused energy, we use a combination of muted patterns so students can concentrate on their studies and teachers have the flexibility to decorate how they want.

However, we opt for dynamic and energetic patterns to represent engagement in areas that allow more student collaboration, like in the media center. This approach to flooring design allows children to intuitively know how to behave depending on where they are.

Photo courtesy of RTA Architects

Designing for All Learning Styles

Over the last decade, we’ve seen a significant increase in schools prioritizing collaborative and flexible design to accommodate different learning styles. Since students are in constant motion and change between activities, ergonomic and Montessori classroom design allows for this adaptable learning style. No student learns the same way, yet traditional classrooms are uniformly structured for one learning method.

Incorporating adjustable chairs or desks, limiting distracting decorations, and finding the right soft lighting are all ways to intentionally design classrooms. These elements aim to optimize comfort, limit sensory overload, and increase productivity. Instead of children being overly focused on staying still, they have the freedom to move so all their attention is on the subject at hand.

Photo courtesy of RTA Architects

There are many ways designers and architects can prioritize student-focused design for better classroom learning. Design must account for diverse learning styles while ensuring students are encouraged to collaborate and connect with their teachers and peers. With the combination of muted and dynamic carpet patterns, noise-reducing materials, and elements that signal purpose, students are well-equipped to comfortably tune into their classroom. And while not every school is able to complete an entire renovation, classrooms and collaborative spaces can simply be redecorated or designed for all students.

As research reveals that relational trust leads to engagement and success, we are reminded that teachers hold our students’ stories and hopes—and here’s how school leaders can lay the foundation for relational trust so that school communities flourish.

In school environments, intellectual growth and community are treasured as exciting pieces of the work that teachers build.  Relationships are critical to everyone in an institution.  Working with people—in addition to working with the technology or materials or curriculum—means that cooperative interactions occur daily.

Because administrators, policy-makers, students, parents, and community members all play key roles in how society values the work of teachers, positive interactions become critical.  For this reason, relational trust is a key factor within the learning environment to have engagement and success (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Bryk et al., 2009).  Relationships are unique and take time to build.  The impact of healthy environments can empower each individual into making authentic efforts, putting in the rigor/practice, and achieving goals.  Keeping teachers engaged and valued, indeed, becomes the most critical aspect of society in order to develop the next generation of educated citizens.

How can administration and leaders help the education profession be enhanced and valued, and why does this matter? 

Insights About Teachers’ Work

1. Use respectful language when talking with and about teachers.  Whether you are an administrator or active community member, how you speak, write, and/or communicate towards educators will shape the culture.  The word “respectful” means showing appreciation and giving grace, honoring the noble work that teachers commit themselves to every day.  The words that we use reflect your level of respect for the job of a teacher.  Most importantly, adults model how others should be treated.  Therefore, a language that shows thoughtful regard for educators’ work—that is, the important job of shaping citizens to be engaged and building caring communities—cannot be underestimated.

Sensitivity is an important skill to emphasize as administrators work with diverse faculty and staff, and teachers benefit from being given grace, as well as avoiding assumptions.  Energy spreads, so focus on the ripple effect of respectful communications—and encourage others to build self-awareness and proactive strategies about compassionate conversations, which open the door to relational trust.  Remember to reach out and offer resources for struggling or novice teachers.  Ask questions and encourage authenticity without judgment.  Indeed, teachers are working in a school culture where verbal communication means much more than only using considerate language.  Community members must consider how their non-verbal cues convey respect to the teaching profession.    

Related:
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2. Make the effort to support teachers’ decision-making and professional growth for others to see—and be inspired.  After all, our effective teachers know that there is clear evidence and data that support their methods.  Rubrics are, for example, a helpful tool in coursework and professional growth that convey levels of mastery (with clear descriptions), showing criteria for learners, as well as for everyone to understand the expectations.  Point out that pedagogical approaches can be the “how” a teacher uses certain skills or strategies to support learning objective(s).  The goals can be viewed as the “what” for educational aims.  None of this is arbitrary.

That being said, one size does not fit all.  Consider the idea that the greater community has a vital role in “recognizing” the efforts and hard work, in addition and with support to their teachers’ work, of all school community members: students, bus drivers, custodians, school resource officers, counselors, administrators, student teachers, parents, and volunteers.  Encouragement matters.  In turn, communities and schools are often reflections of the well-being of each other.  Administrators play a significant role to build relationships of trust for direct mentoring; however, these relationships can also be about connecting others for growth.  Traditional (i.e. one-on-one interactions) or non-traditional mentoring (i.e. via a board, reverse-mentoring, mastermind groups) build relationships and friendships with people who can provide feedback or counsel, so teachers are moving towards progress and growth.  Moreover, every member of the community can find ways to contribute, to discover empowerment, and to offer authentic ways of caring for all people to reach their fullest potential.      

3. Model and uphold emotionally safe spaces for teachers.  Teachers work at schools, where many children—and even adults—will find and thus remember a plethora of emotions in these spaces.  New friendships are made and the magnificent joy of learning new concepts is discovered.  Administrators have a responsibility of maintaining and protecting safe spaces.  Although it can be thought that no space is truly a safe space as one word, one incident, one act can dismantle safety.  Listen to this: our teachers hold our students’ stories and hopes, which transcend way beyond classroom walls. 

In particular, a teacher has the special ability and space of planting seeds, from which dreams grow in children’s minds and hearts.  If we want to change the world, we need to protect and care for the people right here around us.  Therefore, community leaders have an ethical responsibility in helping teachers to keep educative spaces safe.

Now that we have come full circle to where we started, this leads us to a final question: why should we consider and act in ways to keep school teachers engaged and valued?  Certainly, teachers have many daily tasks to accomplish in preparing students to become autonomous and active citizens.  It takes multiple people to have a well-functioning society.  American schools are the foundation where many people learn to think and speak as informed citizens, and teachers build these infrastructures and relationships.  Put simply, people need to know—and feel—more than how to navigate our busy and complex world as we also need to know how to transform it, which is often learned from watching, interacting, and loving our school teachers.

The other day, my friend’s high school daughter complained, “It’s not fair!” “What’s not fair?” her mother asked. “Everyone is cheating!” her daughter replied. “They started doing it during COVID, and now it’s a habit.” Unfortunately, academic dishonesty is just one example of the many negative consequences of the COVID pandemic.

In hindsight, we have ample evidence that remote learning during COVID increased hardships for PK-12 students, both academically and non-academically. Some students lacked necessary resources. In one study, even after all students were provided with a laptop computer, internet access, and headphones, low-income students’ school attendance and engagement were consistently less frequent than their higher-income peers (An, 2021). Food insecurity also increased during COVID, partly due to the hiatus of school breakfast, lunch, and take-home snack pack programs (Parekh et al., 2021). And worst of all, children at home during COVID were twice as likely to experience physical abuse and three times likely to experience emotional abuse during the pandemic than in prior years (Park & Walsh, 2022).

Without a doubt, remote learning during COVID was distressing for students, with 71 percent of parents in one study reporting that the pandemic had “taken a toll on their child’s mental health” (Abramson, 2022, para. 2).

It was a stressful time for teachers, too. One study found that teachers experienced higher burnout rates, depression, and anxiety as a result of the rapid transition to remote learning and its extended duration, which led to feelings of isolation, lower work commitment, and higher teacher turnover (Gutentag & Asterhan, 2022).

All of these factors contributed to a substantial decline in student learning during COVID. One year into the pandemic, Kwakye and Kibort-Crocker (2021) reported that 23 percent of low-income students received a failing grade during the pandemic compared to 8 percent of average- and high-income students. After two years, federal achievement data revealed significant drops in third-grade students’ overall math and reading scores across the United States (Camera, 2022).

So now, we’re all back at school, but things have changed. In addition to lingering fears of COVID, the national trend toward disrespect for authority has increased student discipline issues, and the rash of school shootings in recent years has rendered school safety a huge concern (Kurtz, 2022; Oshin, 2022).

Moreover, controversial curricular reform efforts in social studies, science, and health have exacerbated the re-opening of schools, with community feelings of distrust, protests at school board meetings, and parents pulling children from public schools in favor of private and home school options (Sparks, 2022).

Related:
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Having a campus-wide communication ecosystem is imperative, and school district leaders have no higher priority than to create secure and informed campus environments.

Being able to initiate a controlled emergency notification protocol to alert, notify and monitor directly from a mobile device, classroom audio system, or interactive flat panel is essential.

An eSchool News panel of experts, including Brent Thrasher, Instructional Technology Coordinator at Overton County Schools and Todd Eddy from Galaxy Next Generation, offers insights into how to make better decisions, prevent risk, and strengthen communication between faculty, administration, and first responders during an active threat.

Topics include:

• How to immediately notify teachers of a lockdown through software alerts.
• How to instantly notify law enforcement and first responders.
• How to monitor communication within your entire ecosystem using one software platform.

Related:
3 keys to school communication and community-building

The COVID-19 pandemic affected every aspect of our lives for more than two years, but perhaps the hardest hit population were children who suddenly found themselves unable to go to school. This was disruptive not only from an educational standpoint, but socially, as well. That’s why school districts have done everything in their power so that children can experience a normal 2022–2023 school year. But that can only happen if superintendents make safety a top priority to prevent coronavirus outbreaks that could derail their carefully planned back-to-school plans. And it all starts with air quality. 

This isn’t just a local issue. Over the coming months, the Biden administration will be honoring and highlighting school districts who are excelling in their efforts to improve indoor air quality. It’s a great opportunity for leaders to be recognized for their amazing work, and to instill confidence in a public that is still skeptical that the worst days of the pandemic are behind us. 

According to a recent statement from the White House, in addition to vaccines, boosters, and COVID tests, one of the pillars of keeping schools open is, “helping schools plan and implement indoor air quality improvements.” Schools will have access to federal funds to optimize ventilation through inspection, repairs, upgrades, and replacements in their HVAC systems, as well as installing new systems that facilitate better ventilation.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are providing guidance to help schools develop best practices; and the Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the Efficient and Healthy Schools campaign to help schools implement new technologies and approaches to improve ventilation. 

The DOE effort includes a number of initiatives, but one that school administrators may want to pay special attention to is the recognition of “champion schools and districts who are leading the way on indoor air quality.” The administration will issue criteria for this award in the next few weeks, so savvy administrators will want to keep a close eye on the DOE website for details.

Related:
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As back-to-school commences this fall, in addition to the students and teachers returning to school buildings, somewhere between 160,000 and 250,000–or more–folks will be joining those students and teachers. Known by a variety of titles, from paraeducator and paraprofessional, to aid, to assistant teacher, these educational support personnel have the least training of people working in schools. Add the fact that most paraprofessionals are assigned to work with students with the most significant needs, and one can see why these positions are difficult to fill and have generally high turnover rates.

There are a couple of things that can be done to better assist paraprofessionals in their roles within schools. The first is to ensure more effective communication between teachers and the paraprofessionals who work with the same students and support them in the classrooms.

Building administrators should make sure that teachers provide clear and direct guidance for paraprofessionals at the beginning of each term. Often, paraprofessionals might be new to education and might not have much time to prepare for their assignment. One effective method is to have teachers who will work with paraprofessionals complete a short checklist explaining the items they want the paraprofessional to focus on and what they would prefer is left to the teacher. Building administrators then need to facilitate conversations between the teacher and paraprofessionals so expectations are clear. Such a practice can help eliminate problems before they arise by ensuing clear expectations are set for each paraprofessional.

Once expectations are set, paraprofessionals will often need coaching to improve their practice as any other educator does. Often, this coaching of adults it not included within the scope of pre-service training for teachers. Teacher-prep institutions need to do a better job of viewing the classroom as a more fluid environment than it previously was and therefore include the need to address working with paraprofessionals and co-teachers within teacher prep programs. One good resource for teachers new to working with paraprofessionals in their classroom is Teachers Coaching Paraprofessionals by the Ohio Partnership for Excellence in Paraprofessional Preparation.

Once expectations and good communications have been established between the paraprofessional and the teacher, there is the need to ensure that paraprofessionals have the training necessary to be successful. Due to the often-last-minute nature of paraprofessional hiring, they often do not get all the necessary training when onboarded. Their training often focuses on compliance issues and does not ensure they have a complete toolbox to work with the students to whom they are assigned.

The past two years of pandemic-related stresses and uncertainty have left educators exhausted, even as school districts are returning to a sense of normalcy. A recent National Education Association (NEA) survey found that teachers are burned out, with 67 percent of members reporting it as a very serious issue and 90 percent a very serious or somewhat serious issue.

A majority of schools are completely open for in-person learning, but pandemic-related educator and school staff absences, coupled with continued teacher turnover, are resulting in school staff shortages. In fact, 74 percent of the NEA study respondents reported that they have had to fill in for colleagues or take on other duties at their school or in their district due to school staff shortages.

This is the first time in my career that I have faced the daily struggle to fill school staff shortages caused by teacher turnover or by employees who are sick or quarantining. As school leaders, it is crucial that we work together to lessen the educator turnover issue to help mitigate staff shortages.

Here are a few recommendations that I have used and found beneficial at my high school.

Shield Teachers from Unnecessary Information

Educators are already overwhelmed with everything that is on their plate, and it is the administration’s job to not overburden them further. To lower stress, filter out everything apart from what is most pressing or necessary to share with teachers, which will help them better manage the information.