Elizabeth Moje quoted about high-quality teacher training by Chalkbeat 

Koby Levin reported on the causes and effects of teacher turnover, including the unequal impact on students in Michigan’s low-income communities. Levin wrote, “Teachers are more likely to stay when they have better training, their principals are well-trained, they receive reasonable pay, and their schools can afford to hire enough paraprofessionals, psychologists, and social workers.”

Experts agree that improving the situation would be expensive, and Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature has shown little interest in a major increase in school funding. But billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to Michigan schools presents an opportunity to boost spending on teacher training and mentorship.

School districts have broad discretion to spend the money, including by “hiring additional educators to address learning loss, (and) providing support to students and existing staff,” according to the U.S. Education Department.

Levin points to several efforts across the state aim to expand teacher training and mentorship, including the SOE’s Teaching School in Detroit. Expanding and supporting programs like that one—and teacher training in general—would go a long way toward improving retention, said Elizabeth Moje. 

While districts have only a few years to spend the federal aid, Moje said the benefits of high-quality training would last far longer.

“What better way to use the money than to actually develop the best teachers?” she said. “If we spend it on a text or a learning tool, that might need to be replaced in a few years. Actively developing our teachers to feel really good about their work, that’s something that goes on and on and on.”