Sharing the Journey

Insights from Cross-State Learning

The GTL Center's National Collaborative on Educator Workforce Shortages and Diversity

The Approach

Dedicated Time to Focus, Learn, Share & Plan

As part of the Collaborative, the GTL Center provides in-person and virtual opportunities for facilitated peer-to-peer consultancies, focused team time, presentations from content experts, and review of peer resources.

“If it weren’t for this process, [we would not have] taken the time to look at what we are doing and what we can do. It gives us a moment to pause and reflect on the work that we want to do to achieve the goals that we are setting…In our day-to-day, it’s always busy and these opportunities give us that time to take a step back...and focus on the work."
Hawai'i State Team

screenshot of GIS map of Hawai'i showing teacher shortages and EPP graduation rates

Example GIS Map interface from Hawai'i

Actionable, Innovative Data Analysis

The GTL Center's Collaborative uses Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to measure, analyze, and visualize existing educator workforce data, including diversity gaps, across the educator career continuum and at the state, district, school, and Educator Preparation Program (EPP) levels.

Collaborative State Teams work with the GTL Center experts and coaches to gather relevant data and then analyze the resulting GIS maps. This step helps states make sense of the data they already have available while also providing an evidence-based foundation for identifying patterns and disaggregating data to explore specific student and teacher populations.

"What I found most helpful about the Collaborative was (1) the support for turning our State's masses of data on employees and licensed educators into useable, interactive maps that are full of potential for exploration by many different audiences, and (2) the conversations that we were able to have supported by those maps...it's going to be important in policy going forward."
Ohio State Team

Customized, Tailored Coaching

The GTL Center team works side-by-side with State teams through a multi-step process to help create a locally driven, evidence-based action plan for addressing educator workforce shortages and diversity challenges.

Our steps include:

Root Cause Analysis: consult with educators, higher education staff, policymakers, and community members to identify the underlying root causes for shortages and diversity gaps.
Evidence-based Strategy Selection: link identified root causes with evidence-based, high-impact strategies (for example mentoring and induction, strategic staffing, or revisions to licensure requirements), and determine an implementation timeline.
Implementation, Monitoring, and Continuous Improvement: using the GTL Center's action planning and implementation tools for high leverage strategies, teams develop communication plans and monitoring plans to capture intended and unintended consequences.

“[We had] different state coaches, but all of them brought a different lens to us and really afforded us with their level of expertise and passion with what they brought to the table. They were wonderful to work with. I think the follow-up coaching sessions that were in between the in-person convenings were really tailored to what we needed as a state, and that was really important.”
Louisiana State Team

Opportunities for Cross-State Learning

The GTL Center Collaborative brings state teams together for multiple in-person learning opportunities during the two-year period.

During these sessions, states not only engage in collective learning with national experts, they share their own problems of practice, resources, and stories. By working together, states in the Collaborative have opportunities to better understand the national picture, identify what makes their state's challenges similar or unique, and borrow or adapt innovative ideas and practices or approaches for their educator workforce challenges.

"What I learned from other states comes from just the shared journey of the process itself. Being able to recognize while we are all using the same language we may be looking at different things that are unique, which helps us then to identify what is unique about our situation as well. Collaboratively it helps to really provide context, to not just what other states are doing across the country but how we can improve in our own jurisdiction."
Hawai'i State Team

Interested in Going Deeper?

Explore Each State's Journey Map

At the Collaborative's final in-person convening in December 2023, we asked each state team to reflect and draw a "Journey Map," which offers a visual representation of each team's Collaborative experience.

Process

Teams could reflect on the entire process, or focus on a specific aspects, like milestones, bumps in the road, or measures. After drawing their maps, teams completed a Journey Walk and reflected using a See-Think-Wonder strategy.

Interactive Journey Maps

After the event, we turned each Journey Map into an interactive story. Scroll down to view the maps.

Chart paper with drawings of journey maps by Collaborative state teams

State Journey Maps

Thumbnail image of Team Hawai'i's journey map

Hawai'i: S.U.R.F.I.N.G

Team Hawai'i used the metaphor of S.U.R.F.I.N.G. to illustrate the way their state is thinking about using community-based recruiting to ride the waves of educator workforce challenges that are unique to their state.

Thumbnail image of Team Ohio's journey map

Ohio: The Path to Action

Team Ohio described their whole journey from team formation to recent legislative road bumps, as well as the educator workforce strategies underway in the state.

Thumbnail image of Team Louisiana's journey map

Louisiana: Finding Clarity

Team Louisiana described how their experience helped to shift their team's level of understanding from cloudy confusion to shining clarity, which in turn has helped streamline action planning and produce meaningful impacts for the field.