As a field, education has focused on changing teachers’ instructional knowledge and skills and the content that students learn. Yet, our education system is not reliably delivering quality learning experiences and outcomes for nearly enough people and communities. In The Next Education Workforce: How Team-Based Staffing Models Can Support Equity and Improve Learning Outcomes, Carole G. Basile, Brent W. Maddin, and R. Lennon Audrain argue that we need to redesign how schools organize educators and learners. The authors highlight how the normative one-teacher, one-classroom model underserves both learners and educators. They then make the case that, to achieve more equitable learning outcomes for students and better working conditions for teachers, schools should create teams of educators with distributed expertise that can deliver deeper and more personalized learning experiences for students.
This book then addresses practical steps for school and system leaders to take by outlining core elements of Next Education Workforce models, including new ways for educators to specialize and advance in the profession; offering concrete actions to help leaders navigate and facilitate sustainable systems change; and offering a provocative prescription of how teacher preparation, professional learning, and human resource systems will need to change to support team-based models.