It's a Rap

Unless you are a baby with a wet diaper, change doesn’t feel so good; especially when it is pushed, or worse yet, forced from the top down.

Just ask any educator who lived through A Nation at Risk, No Child Left Behind, or Race to the Top. Let’s face it, most people like things just the way they are. “That’s the way we do things around here” is comfortable, settling, and so status quo; particularly following the terribly disruptive and deadly Covid-19 pandemic from which we have just emerged. Yup, status quo can seem like a warm and welcome friend; simply close your classroom or office door as “this too shall pass”.  That is until a seismic disruption, such as today’s teacher workforce crisis, upends everything.  

The very best educators and school leaders know problems and crises, like the teacher workforce issue, rarely pop up without warning or go away on their own. Experience shows the most impactful solutions usually start at ground level with those dealing directly with the issue, and are the products of creativity, due diligence, strength and courage. Such systemic change efforts in education necessitate strong, trusting partnerships; major reforms such as redefining teacher preparation with residency programs require those across P-20. Residency programs have proven their muster in the field with increased student learning, greater teacher retention, and more workforce diversity.  Weaving together agencies like  the state education department and department of labor, to combine residencies with paid Apprenticeships boosts those positive outcomes manifold. 

In New York, right now, the big challenge to combining and leveraging this pathway is finding higher ed partners with NY State Ed Dept-approved residency programs-districts can not offer highly affordable, paid residency experiences through Apprenticeships without such programs.  Of the 91 Educator Preparation Programs, only ten presently have successfully completed the process to register an NYSED-approved residency program. Most often the challenge is facing the element of change: asking faculty to shift their thinking about partnerships, program delivery, clinical experiences, and curriculum alignment, not to mention simply finding the time to complete NYSED paperwork.

Districts and their higher ed partners want what’s best for students and communities, and the faculty and leaders that comprise the P-20 continuum are passionate, dedicated professionals who chose education to serve students and their communities.  These educators work in a system which regularly faces change, an omnipresent force that reflects the dynamic society we inhabit.  With that reality, educators might appreciate a few of Michael Fullan’s Change Forces:

• “Change is a journey not a blueprint (Change is non-linear, loaded with uncertainty and excitement and sometimes perverse);
• “Problems are our friends (Problems are inevitable and you can’t learn without them)”; and
• “Every person is a change agent (Change is too important to leave to the experts, personal mindset and mastery is the ultimate protection)”.

Change is complicated, hard, and messy. Yet, the innovations on the other side of the change process warrant, and deserve, the effort. 

After all, who can argue with a few additional hands on deck in any classroom?  Who doesn’t want a more diverse, stable teacher workforce?  And who doesn’t want classroom-ready new teachers with the confidence and efficacy to remain in teaching because of their residency Apprenticeship experiences? We all want what is best for students , which is why change in teacher preparation can and will succeed.

Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces: Probing the depth of educational reform. London: Falmer Press.