Offer flexible part-time instructional roles to bring certified, nonemployed educators back into classrooms¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The brief recommends that states and districts offer flexible instructional roles with less stringent full-time commitment to attract certified teachers who have retired, taken breaks, or moved to education-adjacent fields. Specific measures include "job share" arrangements splitting the workweek between two part-time certified teachers, and "adjunct" instructor roles at the secondary level where a certified teacher teaches just a section or two of a course.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• State and district flexibility, such as enabling retired teachers to continue collecting pensions while working part-time or negotiating with teacher unions to permit job shares

Constraints¶

• The brief frames these as strategies with potential to reduce reliance on substitutes, not as evaluated interventions

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students in districts with teacher and substitute shortages

Target Learning Goals¶

• Maintaining access to certified, experienced classroom instruction during staffing shortages

Related Strategies¶

• State and federal policy recommendations: recruit and prepare more candidates, retain new teachers through early-career mentoring, and improve working conditions
• State policy actions across the career continuum: attract, prepare, and develop/support/retain educators
• Use one-time federal relief funds for temporary pay incentives, including hazard pay, to retain and attract educators during the pandemic
• Form partnerships with community organizations, higher education, and CTE programs to expand emergency staffing and build the talent pipeline

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Dana Chambers and Trang Hoang. (2022). How Region 2 States Are Leveraging Innovative Strategies to Address Critical Shortages of Education Personnel. Special Issues Brief. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED619872