Keena Walters & Santiago Navia Jaramillo
Educators face changing community demographics and regional job markets that necessitate shifting the status quo both around how students explore and prepare for careers and how educators are recruited and retained. To help administrators and decision-makers navigate these changes, the Region 4 Comprehensive Center (R4CC) has created three resources. These resources aim to align educational offerings with in-demand careers, expand student exploration of teaching careers, and diversify the educator workforce. The resources summarize research and policy based on two types of programmatic strategies: work-based learning and targeted recruitment and retention.
Resource #1: Maryland’s Work-Based Learning Continuum: Describing the Research and Common Practices
Work-based learning (WBL) aims to connect classroom learning with the workplace. WBL supports more relevant instruction tied to students’ potential careers while contributing to the development of a well-prepared workforce. The report on Maryland’s Work-Based Learning Continuum focuses on four key career-building competencies that develop over time: career awareness, career exploration, career preparation, and career seeking and advancement. The report describes strategies that aim to expand WBL beyond secondary Career and Technical Education programs and provide all students, from kindergarten onward, with early access to career exploration. Using these competencies as a framework, we offer recommendations to
- Offer strategic learning experiences and measure their outcomes (guided lessons, interest surveys);
- Use tools to develop career awareness and competencies (websites, volunteer programs); and
- Foster greater business and educator partnerships to support internships, apprenticeships, and workplace simulations (parents, counselors, local employers, postsecondary institutions).
By providing actionable recommendations supported by evidence, this resource can help education leaders strengthen and align their educational offer with current labor market trends. For a briefer summary of the continuum and how career learning spans pk-12, see this infographic.
Resource #2: Brief on Diversifying the Teaching Workforce Through K-12 Work-Based Learning Experiences
K-12 WBL programs can also help diversify the teaching workforce. A review of state and local education programs informed this approach, where WBL can also support recruitment and outreach to local students so they consider careers in teaching. This policy brief outlines strategies to engage students from diverse backgrounds in the teaching profession through targeted courses, strategic counseling, dual enrollment, and field experiences. Education leaders looking to implement or enhance these programs can access this resource to learn more about the need for partnerships with local education agencies and community organizations to support different student pathways into teaching. They can also see examples of programs in practice. Incorporating WBL strategies not only addresses educational disparities through the diversification of the educator workforce: it can also strengthen local communities by fostering a teaching workforce that reflects and understands the student populations that school districts serve.
Resource #3: Website on Expanding and Diversifying the Educator Workforce
Finding the right resources to diversify the educator workforce can be difficult: there are many available resources and identifying which ones have merit is challenging. This is why the Region 4 Comprehensive Center has meticulously gathered evidence-based resources to bolster efforts aimed at broadening and enriching the educator workforce nationwide. Many of these resources were collected from programs like the Comprehensive Center Network Resource Library and the Regional Education Laboratories (RELs) which provide technical assistance and resources to SEAs and LEAs. The website offers both filtering and search terms, so those seeking resources for specific educator pathway stages (i.e. attract, recruit, hire, or retain) can easily search for ways to either conceptualize or implement and sustain educator workforce initiatives. Additionally, it provides targeted resource collections like Multilingual Learners or Special Education.
Considerations and implications
Local schools face challenges when trying to adapt to changing demographic and economic landscapes. Our research-based resources share ways for educators to meet these changes with success: They can offer students more work-based learning programs that align classroom experiences with job markets, engage more students in exploring teaching careers, and find better ways to recruit and retain educators from diverse backgrounds. We hope these resources can help educators prepare their students and communities for the future.