Commentary: Prioritizing leadership and mentorship will prevent teachers from leaving the profession

Our eighth graders have a yearly tradition: They walk the hallways on their last day of school while the sixth and seventh graders and their teachers stand and honor them as they leave. As I walked with one of my eighth graders, Murphy, sixth and seventh grade teachers were giving him high-fives. I noticed him looking lonely and asked him what was wrong.

“None of my teachers from sixth and seventh grade are here. I barely recognize any of these people.”

I went through the list of Murphy’s previous teachers. They had left our school or teaching entirely. None of the people who got him here were there, and he didn’t know anyone cheering him on.

Murphy’s experience is real. America’s teacher shortage shows no signs of abating. Early career educators are departing — especially at high-poverty schools, leaving many students, like Murphy, longing for the teachers who left. This fleeing of educators is a national crisis and we must address it as such especially since failure — an educational system that lacks highly qualified artisans — is not an option.

The first step is prioritizing teacher growth and development. As we want our students to grow, teachers must experience growth opportunities as professionals do in any other field. Encouraging teachers to see themselves as leaders is a good start. Even though we lead children every day through a plethora of content and life experiences, many of us don’t see ourselves as leaders.

I didn’t until one day, late in my career, our superintendent visited my classroom. After observing me, she told me that she saw me as an “educational leader, a rebel leader.” This experience of “the shoulder tap”— when a mentor identifies a teacher’s leadership potential — changed my professional life. Yet, I wonder what would have happened if she didn’t observe me. Shoulder taps are powerful, but accidental. Many leaders get missed.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s story reminded me how important it was for teachers to see themselves as leaders. He leaned into his teaching as a form of leadership. I was fortunate to grow my leadership capacity, to know what needed to be said, through my work with Teach Plus, a teacher leadership and advocacy organization. When teachers don’t see themselves as leaders, our vision does not grow. Leaning into my leadership has helped me to see myself empowered to make educational change on the classroom, school, district and state levels. It gave me the confidence to use my voice to help fight for kids and teachers. When we see ourselves as leaders, our vision grows and students like Murphy benefit.

The second step is fortifying mentoring. Younger and underrepresented teachers benefit from a mentor. I did. Throughout my first year, I would arrive early to my mentor’s classroom armed with my notebook of questions. He would then meet me at day’s end, when the notebook had grown. That experience helped me during a difficult first year. Since then, I have mentored many younger teachers whose fears and uncertainties have been similar to mine. In mentoring and finding a space where they feel honored, these teachers gain strength and confidence and no longer feel alone.

My experience with mentoring is not unique. A good mentor can sustain younger teachers in the profession. Preventing the loss in Murphy’s and these teachers’ eyes fuels my mentoring today.

The third step is changing school structures to match our students’ and teachers’ realities. I not only have to brainstorm with my students a future impossible to determine, but help them develop skills to successfully compete in it. Yet, school structures function as they always have: one teacher teaching a class of students, in a one-size-fits all approach.

Teachers like me need a redesigned profession. This could involve innovative approaches to collaborative teaching, changing the school week schedule and design, emphasizing individualized learning projects, constructing student-centered school days, or altering the time spent in school. Our profession needs to keep with what I know I need to do to prepare my students for a complicated future.

In a restructured profession, I could successfully navigate challenges to help my students be more confident and prepared for an uncertain future while helping other teachers gain strength and power as they wave to Murphy as he leaves.

We can take these concrete steps to help all teachers find a home in the profession as they provide a home to their students. Before parting ways on his last day of eighth grade, I told Murphy he can always come visit because “I’ll still be here,” a promise that made him smile.

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Ashley A. Kannan is an eighth grade U.S. history teacher at Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and Teach Plus Senior Policy Fellow and Teach Plus Writing Fellow.

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