How Can We Get the Best Teachers Working with Our Highest-Need Students?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses how the current system creates backwards incentives that push the best teachers away from the students who need them most.
Key Takeaways
- The system works backwards - The best teachers end up in the easiest assignments while struggling students get the least experienced staff
- Incentives need to change - Without meaningful incentives, top teachers have no reason to take on the hardest assignments
- This is an equity imperative - Getting the strongest teachers in front of the highest-need students is one of the most impactful things schools can do
Transcript
If you work in a bad school, does that mean you're a bad teacher?
Well, of course not.
But the reality is you're going to take a little bit of a reputational hit if you work in a lower performing school, even if you're a fabulous teacher.
And I think we've got to do something about this as a profession.
If we want the best teachers to work with the neediest students, we need to make it appealing to work with the neediest students and mitigate the stigma that naturally comes with doing so.
And I think one way school districts can do that is to incentivize working in the highest needs schools.
We need to have a stipend.
We need to have priority hiring for schools that have higher need student populations, just like the WNBA draft, right?
Like the reason the Fever was able to draft Caitlin Clark is because the Fever was the worst team in the league.
They had priority in picking their new draftees.
And I think we've got to just think about that the same way, that we need to match talent equally.
with need and not make it like a promotion to work with less needy students.
I think that's a longstanding norm in our profession across schools, across, you know, between districts and also within schools where if you're the new teacher, you're probably going to teach the lowest level courses.
You're going to teach the most remedial courses and the fewest advanced courses.
and as you gain seniority and you know power in your school you can kind of negotiate for better courses higher level courses less remedial less you know students who are below grade level uh in your in your courses i think that's just backwards right we've got to realign the incentives so that it is an honor to teach higher needs students and we should recognize that when people are in that situation, they need more support, right?
We can't just say, well, you're great, so work miracles.
We also need to actually provide support to people who are in those schools, who are in those roles, so that they can be successful.
Because the biggest, like the most powerful incentive of all is not money.
It's not what other people think about you.
It's your own feeling of, am I being successful?
Nobody wants to be in a situation as a teacher where they're not being successful.
So it's not just about paying more.
It's not just about hiring people It's not just about reputation.
It is about setting people up for success.
I think we've got to do a lot more in this profession to match the best teachers up with the neediest students.
Let me know what you think.