Transformation of the Educator Workforce, Aided by Parallel Change in Schools of Education

• In Event: How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools: Chicago's Story

Abstract

Through systematic and serendipitous means, Chicago transformed what is arguably a school system’s most essential resource—its people. In the early years, teachers were hired and assigned to schools with little regard for community needs, and principals often were appointed based on who they knew or how much they contributed to an election campaign. Significant efforts unfolded over time to improve the development, recruitment, ongoing professional learning, evaluation, and retention of educators at every level of the system: teachers, school-based leaders, network, and Central Office staff.
As a distinctive part of the educational exoskeleton, Chicago’s schools and colleges of education contributed to educator workforce development for Chicago’s schools in new ways: they redesigned their professional preparation programs for teachers and principals, created new alternative routes to professional certification, and partnered with organizations, such as New Leaders and Teach for America, to augment workforce development. One prominent illustration of institutional transformation was the College of Education at University of Illinois Chicago, which received national recognition for teacher and leader preparation programs that were redesigned in close partnership with CPS. UIC took a leadership role in helping CPS and higher education shape new policies and practices in teacher and leadership preparation, becoming a major supplier of teachers and principals for CPS in the process--and generating new research for the field as a result.

Authors

• Al Bertani, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Steven E. Tozer, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author