Hitting the Reset Button on Staff Culture

Transcript

[ About the Teach Blue Fellows Conversation Series ]

Rod Franchi: Hi, my name is Rod Franchi and I want to welcome you to the Teach Blue Fellows conversation series where we drill down with one of our fellows in the problem of practice they've been working on. If you don't know about Teach Blue Fellows, let me fill you in on this cool new program here at the Marsal School of Education. It is made up of six amazing alumni who now work in K-12 spaces. Our aim is to pull back the curtain and show what it looks like when expert practitioners take on authentic problems, all in the service of helping our students learn. In the last year, each fellow worked alongside their peers and a Marsal faculty partner to take on that problem of practice. We got a little smarter about their problem, crafted a solution plan, and then they implemented it. Along the way, the fellows file accounts to tell their story in real time. Most accounts are in blog form, but this third one is a conversation. At the end of their cycle, each fellow will file their final account, a little talk at our Teach Blue Fellows Symposium.

[ Introducing Dara Klein ]

Rod: Hello everyone, this is Rod Franchi, the Program Coordinator for Teach Blue Fellows. In this episode of the Teach Blue Fellows conversation series, I talk with the great Dara Klein, who is Director of Talent at the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences. You know, when you look at our Teach Blue Fellows as a set, you'll notice that not every fellow is a classroom teacher. We wanted people to see the range of efforts involved in educating our kids. There are so many players. As Director of Talent at the Detroit Academy, Dara's problem of practice is really real. There's a unique sense of urgency here. How do you maintain consistency in your staff during such challenging times?

Today, Dara talks with me about a program she's working on at the Detroit Academy. You know, as instructors here at Marsal, we always stress the importance of a rich classroom culture for K-12 students. Well, Dara is part of an effort to deepen the culture for our K-12 staff. That work is focused on teams, staff teams. The hope is that teams will help make the Detroit Academy a place teachers feel attached to. And we all know how important a consistent staff is for sustained student learning. Here is my conversation with Dara Klein.

Rod: Dara, it is so great to see you. Let's talk staff retention.

Dara Klein: Yeah, hi Rod. Excited to be here.

Rod: Yeah, thanks.

Dara Klein: Thanks for having me.

Rod: First before we get into it, can you share with our audience your affiliation with the University of Michigan Marsal School of Education?

Dara Klein: Absolutely, I am alumni of the Undergraduate Elementary program class of 2012.

[ Dara's Problem of Practice ]

Rod: Awesome. All right. And as a Teach Blue Fellow, you defined a problem of practice in the spring of last year. Can you give us a general idea about, like, what the problem of practice and how that became your choice?

Dara Klein: Yeah, for sure. So I'm the Director of Talent at Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences. We're a pre-K through eighth grade charter school located in downtown Detroit. We serve just over a thousand students. is African American, and 97% of our students are eligible for pre and reduced lunch. We have 69 instructional staff, including classroom teachers, electives teachers, special education teachers, and intervention specialists. And as the director of talent, my role is primarily responsible for recruitment and retention and development of our educators. And I think that my perspective as a former teacher and a former school administrator helps me bring a real unique perspective to that role. So my problem that I defined for Teach Blue Fellows really centers around how recruitment, retention, educator development, how all of those things are linked. I was really honing in on how we see headlines everywhere about historic teacher shortages and no one wants to be a teacher and teacher retention crisis. And so recognizing that our need for high quality, highly effective teachers has never been greater. There are huge learning gaps post Covid and our kids need the best teachers 'cause that's how they learn. And so I set out to think about how can innovative strategic staffing models help us, not just attract, but also keep the best teachers in the classroom serving our kids.

Rod: Got it, yes, all right. There's a lot of different angles and certainly, if a staff member feels like they're part of a team, they feel like this is a good fit, I'm guessing that would help with retention. So last year you were linked with a Teach Blue Fellow faculty partner. First of all, tell us about who your partner is and what those conversations were like.

Dara Klein: Sure, so I was really excited to get to connect with Chris Torres as my faculty partner. Chris is Associate Professor of Education, Policy and Leadership at the Marsal School. And so before getting connected with him, I was somewhat familiar with his work. He was the principal investigator on a report that was put out last fall, called "The State of the Educator Workforce in Michigan." So that was something that I had looked into and done a bit of research on. So I was really excited to see his name on the list of potential faculty partners, and even more excited when he was interested in partnering up and, you know, thought partnering with me. And so when Dr. Torres and I first got to connect over Zoom last year, I got to tell him a little bit about what I was starting to think about and some of the teaming work we were thinking about piloting in my school in partnership with the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative and the Next Education Workforce out of Arizona State University, which was work that he was also in the process of learning more about. So it felt like a really good fit.

Rod: Great. And so I know that you had some conversations and then there were some sources. I guess before we get to the sources, even those early conversations, did they help move your thinking forward even if they were just in modest ways?

Dara Klein: For sure. So he shared a lot of resources and we got to kind of just like brainstorm a little bit together, and Dr. Torres actually came out and visited my school, which was really cool.

Rod: That's nice.

Dara Klein: I got to show him around and we got to see some classrooms together, which was awesome. But he helped really, like, spark my thinking around working conditions in school and building conditions for collaboration. So shared some resources that helped me dig into that a little bit better.

Rod: Cool. Okay. And then, yeah, about those resources. Can you talk about a couple of them and how those helped you move your thinking forward?

Dara Klein: Yeah, sure. So one of those, and I'm gonna read for my notes because

Rod: Yeah.

Dara Klein: I'm gonna botch the title because very long.

Rod: Oh, yeah, no. Yeah, please.

Dara Klein: A study out of Harvard, it was, "How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers' working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students' achievement." So, mouthful of a title, but I mean, it was a really meaty resource that really helped me kind of think and grapple with, if our job in public education is to provide effective teaching for all of our students, we need to make sure that our schools are places where effective teaching is supported and developed and cultivated. And so I found that source really, really helpful to kind of guide my thinking on developing this solution plan and also communicating it more broadly with my team. And another one of the sources that I thought was really helpful actually was an article that Dr. Torres co-wrote for Education Leadership Magazine, which he was able to share with me called "Breaking the Egg Crate Model of Schooling," which really focused in on this team based model and implementing that. So it was a great connection to the solution plan that I had already identified.

Rod: What did he conclude about teaming?

Dara Klein: Yeah, so, as I previously mentioned, so the solution plan, or I alluded to the solution plan we're piloting in my district, it's in collaboration with a few other organizations. So the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiatives, or MEWI, and the Next Education Workforce out of Arizona State University. And so that initiative out of ASU is focused on rethinking that traditional one teacher, one classroom model. And instead, having a core group of educators wrap around a shared roster of students. And so, and this is sort of what Dr. Torres's article really got at, but this allows for us to do a few things. And this is why, you know, we honed in on this, is like, okay, let's try this, let's pilot this. One, kids are able to build and maintain relationships with more than one caring adult in the school. So it's different than that traditional one teacher, one classroom model where a kid has that one person that's their core person, or maybe two people in the day. But rather a team of educators that they can build strong, caring relationships with.

Rod: Yeah, before you.

Dara Klein: Yeah.

Rod: In my coursework when I, you know, the courses that I teach, in the fall, we have a practicum course, it's like a seminar. We try to kind of focus them, like use the classroom as a lab and talk about what is it about a classroom culture that's really important for a teacher to develop? And, you know, of course, like relationships was, we talked about that a lot.

Dara Klein: That's the idea. And that relationship, it's foundational, but it also has the potential to be transformational. And so giving all of our kids more opportunities to build those relationships is really powerful.

Rod: Nice.

Dara Klein: So another advantage, or potential advantage about the model is, teachers can have that opportunity to hone in on one specific content area or specialty or something that they're really, really strong in. And then deliver that instruction at that highly effective level to even more kids, which is cool and hopefully that'll have a great impact on student learning. Teachers also will have the opportunity to work collaboratively and team teach rather than isolated in a silo of one classroom, which having, you know, having been a teacher myself, I know that that can be really isolating when you're, you know, you're not alone because you're with a bunch of kids but you're an adult alone in a room with a bunch of kids. And that can be hard to feel that sense of belonging with your greater team if you don't see the adults that you're working with regularly throughout the day. And then finally, one of the things that made this feel like a really great fit for my organization in particular is teachers get that opportunity to learn from one another, which makes everyone better. So in my district, we have another initiative focused on teacher recruitment and retention called our Model Teacher program. So we have a cadre of highly effective teachers at a variety of different grade levels, but these teachers are experts in their field, have a demonstrated impact on student outcomes, they have rockstar data. They're, you know, have consistent ratings of highly effective. And so in this teaming model, not only do those teachers get to have an impact on a greater number of students by working with maybe all rather than just the 25 students in their classroom, but also the other teachers on their team get to work more closely with that expert model teacher and learn from them and further develop their craft. So it's a growth opportunity all around.

Rod: Creating those support systems and those collaboration systems is so key. And you know, again, like back to the goal, maybe people will plug in and just feel like this is my job and this is like my career here. I see a career here and wanna be part of this team. I love that. And so how many teachers are we talking about here in the program?

Dara Klein: Yeah, so we're piloting right now on two grade levels, both of, so in our kindergarten team this year and our second grade team, both of those teams have six core educators on the team, or lead teachers.

Rod: Okay.

Dara Klein: And then there's some extended team members, like special education teacher who sometimes pushing in, paraprofessionals, occasionally pushing in and providing additional support. But the core educator team is six on each of those two teams.

Rod: Okay. Got it. And then, so from my understanding, this was launched in the fall, so how are things going about halfway through?

Dara Klein: Yeah. There've been a lot of bright spots and a lot of learning curves for sure. But I think one of the biggest bright spots that I can see and really put my finger on from the outside, obviously I'm not on the core team doing that work, but I'm helping facilitate it, but really building on what you were saying before about, you know, the importance of that culture, really seeing that joy and comradery.

Rod: Yeah.

Dara Klein: It's palpable. It's obvious. Not to say that like every day is easy and sunshine and rainbows.

Rod: No, never.

Dara Klein: It's not. But both teams, in different ways have like really banded together, which is really cool to see from the outside as an administrator. It's apparent in little ways like the way that they, both teams showed up in like matching costumes on Halloween and you know, the second grade team was the Wizard of Oz, and so they, you know, everyone was someone and it was connected to their three student groups or the lions, tigers and, uh. Lions, tigers and bears, yeah. Which, you know, was adorable 'cause it was connected to the Wizard of Oz. The kindergarten team, they also had, you know, their matching costumes connected to one of the books that they were reading and they show up in like matching team t-shirts every Friday, and.

Rod: Kids love this right? They just respond to this when they see their teachers like dressing up and (audio warbles).

Dara Klein: Yeah.

Rod: Cool.

Dara Klein: And just like having fun and smiling and having joy, which is like something that I think coming back from Covid and virtual schools.

Rod: Yeah, oh yeah.

Dara Klein: And it was something that like, we really lost. And so at my organization as a whole, that's something that we've really tried to focus on is like bringing joy back into the classroom.

Rod: Yeah.

Dara Klein: And so that's definitely really apparent on these teams. So you can see it in like those little ways, but also in like ways that the teachers, since they all know all of the kids in the grade level now, you know, they have been able to band together to advocate for, you know, on behalf of individual student needs and things like that. Which, you know, has been really cool to get to see, you know, the advantages of them getting to do that together and grapple with some of those tough challenges. It's not just one teacher figuring out this thing on their own. They are getting to, you know, come up with solutions to some of these really challenging issues in their classrooms as a group.

Rod: Yeah, things that come up. Yeah, things that come up everyday, I'm sure.

Dara Klein: Yeah.

Rod: So I know it's early in the pilot, but can you talk a little bit about what you've learned so far about the keys to staff retention or something like, some ways to getting it a little better at that?

Dara Klein: Sure. So it's, this has like made me double down on the, you know, the understanding and the belief that sense of belonging is just so important in staff retention and that the working conditions are just so important as like influencers for why teachers stay. At the end of the day, like I said, like it's not sunshines and rainbows every day. The work is really hard, and the thing that makes educators get up and come back to work on the day after the day that it was really hard in the classroom is like their investment in the mission and the vision of what they're doing and their work with their colleagues and for their kids, and, you know, on behalf of the organization. And I think that working on a team, especially a highly effective team, is a really great motivator and influencer in, you know, that motivation and that sense of belonging.

Rod: Yeah, interesting. You know, you talk about joy and I'm hearing you talk about purpose. You know, I, that right, I mean, in any sort of job or profession, career, I think it's so, so important for people to feel like this is, I'm on like a little mission. This is like, I have a purpose in what I'm doing. That's very cool. Yeah. All right. And then, so as you're moving through this, what are some new questions that you're thinking about when it comes to staff retention and your pilot?

Dara Klein: So many. One of the really big things that I'm grappling with right now, obviously we're a couple months in to this pilot, but we're already starting to think about next school year. And so one of the things that I'm thinking about is how we're evaluating, you know, how this work is going in our pilot and how we're building and getting ready for next year, thinking about ways that we might wanna grow and like how are we cultivating curiosity about this work among the rest of our staff and potentially sparking interest from other educator teams to try it out.

Rod: Great. Okay. Well, we're gonna about ready to wrap things up, but is there one question that you wish I would've asked?

Dara Klein: Hmm. So one thing that we didn't really talk about was like, the impact on students. And so while I don't totally have the answer for that yet, right, we're doing our midyear benchmark testing next week, so I think we're all like anxiously awaiting to see what that formative data kind of tells us about the academic impact on student outcomes that this is having. But we're definitely seeing lots of anecdotal evidence about the way that this is impacting kids in terms of like, the relationships with adults and with each other even. 'Cause another, you know, another strong benefit of this pilot not is, sorry, is not only like, kids getting to work in those larger groups and smaller groups with mixed groups of students, rather than just the 25 students in their one classroom, so they're getting a lot of, you know, collaboration with each other, working on building relationships, maintaining relationships. So there's a lot of social emotional work happening in these classrooms, which is exciting. When I walk down the hall and I walk, you know, you peek in, like, these classrooms are busy, which is something that I always wanna see when I'm walking.

Rod: That's right.

Dara Klein: But I don't like to do observations and see like super quiet classrooms. Busy classrooms mean learning is happening. So that's been great. But another really strong benefit of this pilot is that there's minimal loss of instructional time when one of those teachers is absent because they had a doctor's appointment or a sick day or whatever it is. Absences do happen occasionally, and even though they do have a substitute teacher that comes in to support in their absence, there's also five other teachers on the team that are supporting the kids that do know them and have been with them every day, and know the instructional plan, probably a little bit better than the guest teacher coming in as the substitute does. So there's little loss of instructional time for the kids. And so we're excited to see what the impact on student academics kind of shows us from that.

Rod: How interesting. You're in such a unique position 'cause you've been the classroom teacher, you've been an administrator, and now you have this targeted position, which I think is really great that they created this position to get at this problem that is this universal problem. Well, Dara, I look forward to, you know, seeing how this story keeps moving forward and, you know, look forward to our next little work session coming up in the spring. Anyway, great to see you today.

Dara Klein: Me too.

Rod: Thanks for sharing this story and we'll talk to you again soon.

Dara Klein: Thank you so much.

Rod: Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Teach Blue Fellows Conversation series. Dara is such a talented educator. With her experience as a teacher and administrator, she brings this holistic perspective to her job as a recruiter. I wanna thank Dara for talking with me today, and a big thanks to the EdHub for Community and Professional Learning at Marsal for their many production talents. You can learn more about the Teach Blue Fellows by clicking the link in our show notes. Also, don't forget to join our social communities available through marsal.umich.edu. There you can find ways to stay connected with Teach Blue Fellows and you can hear more about our upcoming episodes. There are more conversations with our amazing Teach Blue Fellows and I hope you'll check them out. Thanks.