ASCD Forum: How Can We Improve Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Support?

It’s time to discuss short-and long-term solutions to a pressing problem.

How Can We Improve Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Support?

The challenges of the past two years have been unprecedented. COVID-19 has made education’s chronic problems more acute and is forcing a reckoning in the areas of equity, access, and working conditions (to start). Educators around the world are feeling overworked and underappreciated as they try to support their students, colleagues, and families while navigating the “new normal” wrought by the pandemic.

The result is a rising number of educators leaving the field to seek other careers or go into early retirement. The phenomena known as the Great Resignation is occurring across all industries, but is hitting education particularly hard. The staffing crisis—made worse by the pandemic—is directly impacting school personnel and students, especially marginalized students who were already being chronically under-resourced and underserved.

ASCD has become increasingly concerned about the acceleration of these problematic long-term trends. These issues require immediate attention. As a first step in this process, ASCD is initiating a conversation on the topic of teacher recruitment, retention, and support.

We Want to Hear from You

We want to hear directly from educators on how to improve the profession—especially in the areas of induction, compensation, working conditions, and recognition. For example, How can we improve the educator pipeline to ensure a sufficient pool of qualified candidates amid a growing teacher shortage? What more can be done, or done differently, to increase educator retention rates? How can we best support veteran educators to preserve and tap their wealth of experience and wisdom to benefit their colleagues, school, and students? More broadly, does education need a “re-brand?”

During April, ASCD will be posting questions on Twitter (follow @ASCD) for educators to consider. We’ll also provide information and resources to help inform the conversation. Educators can contribute to the discussion using the #ASCDForum hashtag.

Your participation is key to the success of this conversation. Your input will be invaluable as ASCD works to elevate the profession and provide educators and school leaders with the resources, policies, and supports they need to nurture, recognize, and reward the workforce.

We look forward to engaging with you online! Check out the discussion on Twitter and add your thoughts at #ASCDForum.

Twitter Chat

Join Us for a Twitter Chat (#ASCDForum) on April 18 at 8 p.m. ET

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David Griffith is the former Senior Director of Advocacy and Government Relations. In this role, he lead ASCD's efforts to influence education decision-making at the federal, state, and local levels and the development and implementation of the association's legislative agenda. He played an instrumental role in promoting multimetric accountability and a whole child approach to education, as well as being a national speaker and resource expert on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Prior to joining ASCD, Griffith was the director of governmental and public affairs for the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). Previously, he served as a congressional aide to two Representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, he has worked on numerous political campaigns, was the legislative and grassroots coordinator for the American Arts Alliance representing the nation's leading nonprofit arts institutions, and traveled the country doing advance work for the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay.

He received his bachelor's degree from Villanova University and his master's degree in education from the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education.