Grow-your-own teacher pipelines and institutionalized peer-based professional learning to build a qualified newcomer-school workforce¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Because newcomer teachers need competencies beyond standard English Learner preparation, the report describes pipelines and continuous professional learning. The Lewiston School District, which "struggles to recruit nonwhite, multilingual teachers," built a local pipeline: ESL-certificate cost reimbursement for education technicians via blended Saturday instruction, plus a free 3-unit summer introductory teaching course aimed at nonwhite, multilingual prospective teachers. Professional learning is "normalized into the DNA" of the schools through peer-based activities that are scheduled, embedded in real classroom problems, subject-matter grounded, collaborative, and continuous.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Designated time built into the school schedule
• partnerships with local colleges or universities
• mentors for beginning teachers

Constraints¶

• Most teachers certified in English as a second language have little or no experience with newcomers, since most English Learners are U.S.-born

Target Learners¶

• Newcomer students taught by teachers needing specialized newcomer competencies

Target Learning Goals¶

• Teacher cultural competence
• trauma- and resilience-informed instruction
• co-planning and co-teaching of language and content

Related Strategies¶

• Grow-your-own teacher training programs targeting community members facing certification and career-change barriers
• Supports teachers need to enact formative assessment for English learners
• Support the evolving instructor role with professional development beyond product training, articulated role expectations, and communities of practice
• Grow-your-own and recruitment initiatives: alternative programs, Minority Serving Institutions, high-school pipeline programs, and district human-capital efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.
• State policy actions across the career continuum: attract, prepare, and develop/support/retain educators
• Provide professional learning and a bilingual workforce so preK and early elementary educators can sustain home language and oral language development
• Diverse hiring committees and intentional recruitment practices including HBCU/MSI outreach and higher-education partnerships

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• MAEC, Inc. (2019). Creating New Futures for Newcomers: Lessons from Five Schools that Serve K-12 Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylees. Bethesda, MD. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED627813