Creating School–University Partnerships in Urban Schools to Address Teacher Shortages

Abstract

Partnerships among professionals within collegiate teacher preparation programs and school districts are needed to address current teacher shortages, especially critical in urban, high-needs schools. This research study showcases a collaborative model of teacher recruitment, preparation, and support that envisions and co-constructs reconceptualized roles, opportunities, and responsibilities for university faculties, supervising teachers, and teacher candidates. The concept is supported through a continuum of professional learning and reflection. The enhanced partnership model (EPM) for internship requires a partnership between faculties in teacher preparation programs and school districts to develop, engage, and evaluate an EPM for urban-school teacher preparation in multiple urban school sites in the southeastern United States. The goals of this innovative EPM revolve around recruiting diverse teacher candidates, collaboratively preparing them to focus on rigorous academic coursework as well as practical, classroom-based experiences, and retaining the new teachers. Employment data were accessed via administrative sources. A chi-square test of association was used to examine the relationship between participation in the EPM and employment (n = 158). The findings highlight that pre-service teachers participating in the EPM are 4.5 times as likely to be employed in a high-needs school, and 75% of those employed are still employed three years later. The implications of these results are shared.

1. Introduction

In the United States (U.S.), the shortage of teachers has reached critical levels. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education (https://www.ed.gov/raisethebar/Eliminating-Educator-Shortages-through-Increasing-Educator-Diversity; accessed on 15 May 2024) and other researchers, almost every state reported difficulties in recruiting and retaining qualified teachers [1,2,3]. Shortages are more severe in high-poverty urban and rural areas which already struggle to recruit and retain teachers. Urban schools serving predominantly students of color and students from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately impacted by shortages [4]. In addition, the lack of diversity among mathematics and science teachers remains a significant challenge. As reported, STEM teachers are overwhelmingly white, even in schools with non-white student populations [5]. The need to recruit a diverse representation of teachers creates an additional burden to recruit educators who reflect the student body.

The impact of teacher shortages on students is multifaceted and can significantly affect their educational experiences and learning outcomes [6]. Frequent teacher turnover disrupts continuity, as students must adapt to new teaching styles and expectations each year [7]. With fewer teachers, schools may struggle to offer a wide range of courses and extracurricular activities. Students may not have opportunities to enroll in specialized subjects, advanced classes, or enrichment programs as they are not offered. For example, a shortage of science teachers may result in a lack of STEM courses offered, such as advanced physics or chemistry courses, which limit students’ exposure to these critical subjects. Teacher shortages often lead to larger class sizes, resulting in increased teacher workload and other associated challenges such as students’ disengagement, reduced quality of teaching, etc. The scarcity of qualified teachers affects the quality of instruction and the ability to address achievement gaps to ensure equitable access to quality education for all students [8].

The effects of teacher shortages extend beyond the classroom. Teachers play a crucial role in students’ emotional development. A shortage of caring, supportive educators can negatively impact students’ mental health. There are long-term impacts, as well. Students who miss out on quality education may face challenges in college readiness, career prospects, and overall life outcomes [9].

Therefore, the need to recruit, prepare, and retain diverse teachers to teach students in high-needs schools through a comprehensive, supported system of recruitment is critical [10]. Although researchers have found that “a profession like teaching, which is not directly tied to the market, has a very low status in the broader society [11]”, addressing factors that can be controlled more easily is more important than ever. Collaboration among professionals within teacher preparation programs and school districts connects features of theoretical knowledge with job-embedded practices during sustained professional learning from teacher candidates’ initial clinical experiences (such as internships) through induction [10,11,12].

While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the persistent severe teacher shortage, there are indeed innovative, enhanced, collaborative school–university partnership models in teacher preparation programs that prepare and support teacher candidates for the challenges and rewards of teaching [12]. A collaborative model of teacher preparation envisions and co-constructs reconceptualized roles, opportunities, and responsibilities for university faculties and supervising teachers through a supported continuum of professional learning. This requires faculties within teacher preparation programs and school districts to partner to comprehensively develop and engage in rigorous academic coursework and practical, classroom-based experiences. The goals are to better prepare pre-service teacher candidates to focus on rigorous academic coursework and practical, classroom-based experiences through the continued development of pedagogical content knowledge through sustained coaching and mentoring in high-needs schools [9,13,14].

There are studies that portray different perspectives on partnership as a means for teacher development, employment, and retention, especially in high-needs schools [9,13,14]. One study does not specifically name partnerships but shows that roughly 259,400 teachers left the field in 2012–2013 due to feelings of isolation. As reported, teachers left teaching in the United States due to dissatisfaction with teaching as a career and a lack of support (21%) [4]. This last point is connected to another article showing that of the top five factors influencing teachers’ decisions to enter, stay, or leave, one is preparation for entry and another is induction and support for new teachers [5]. In addition, as previously mentioned, teachers report limited interaction with students from diverse backgrounds in their preparation experiences and perceive themselves to be ill-prepared to address the needs of diverse populations [10]. This lack of preparation is reflected in high turnover rates (more than 20% annually) in high-needs schools [15]. However, another study [13] found that teachers with higher levels of knowledge and induction support reported greater job manageability and increased success with diverse students. To address these critical and complex issues, it is reported that research studies on sustained professional development, investigating mentoring and support for teachers, does not provide strong evidence of effectiveness due to the quality of the research studies [8,15]. These results are in addition to a decline in the number of undergraduate students that choose teaching as a career [16,17], and research that reports that high-poverty schools tend to experience a greater decline rate and lower interest in teaching at high-poverty schools [18].

The conclusions from these studies call for robust research studies on mentoring and teacher support with stronger evidence for their conclusions. As a result, evaluation of applied research to address complex educational research questions is now required by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (P.L. 115–435) in the U.S. [3], as federal agencies are now required to submit a systematic plan for identifying, as well as addressing, policy questions. This plan must include, among other components, appropriate questions, data, and methods [19]. Hence, the need to evaluate the recruitment, preparation, and support of pre-service teachers throughout their professional careers to meet the needs of diverse students with culturally responsive teaching and social/emotional methods is of the utmost importance [9].

To address concerns, the faculty within a university-based teacher preparation program in a large urban school district in the southeast United States co-constructed an innovative teacher preparation program (https://ccie.ucf.edu/teacher-quality-partnerships/; accessed on 15 May 2024). The goals of this teacher preparation program and research study were to recruit and increase the quantity of diverse teacher candidates, co-construct, implement, and evaluate an enhanced partnership model (EPM) for teacher preparation at urban school sites, and support graduates during induction to retain teachers in high-needs schools. This research model addressed the need to better prepare teachers to transform content knowledge into pedagogically powerful instruction to meet students’ abilities and backgrounds by providing authentic clinical experiences for prospective teachers in high-needs schools [12,20] using robust evaluation designs and methods.

2. Purpose

This study describes the enhanced partnership model and specific programmatic components of the continuum of professional learning by a university faculty (Professors-In-Residence), supervising teachers, and teacher candidates through collaborative, sustained professional learning, mentoring, and support. The study was part of a five-year federally funded project conducted at a large public university in the southern United States in partnership with a local school district and select high-needs schools within the district (referred to herein as ‘partner schools’). The focus of this multi-faceted research was to investigate the co-constructed enhanced partnership model for teacher preparation. Approval for research on human subjects was granted through the university (study 00000123) and the school district (initial approval 0235).

The specific research question was as follows:

To what extent is there a relationship between internship condition (enhanced or business-as-usual) and employment as a teacher-of-record in a high-needs school?

3. Methods

3.1. Design

A randomized block design was used. The idea behind randomized block is that homogenous blocks are created within which nuisance factors are held constant. The school context, for example, is a nuisance factor as each school operates slightly differently with different rules, policies, administration, etc. Blocking assists in removing effects due to the school context. In this study, variation between schools is a nuisance factor to control. Thus, block randomization at the school level assisted in achieving balance between treatment and typical, business-as-usual conditions within schools.

3.2. Assignment to Condition

As part of the university’s internship process, teacher candidates applying for their internship identify schools at which they prefer to complete their student teaching. Teacher candidates identified for this study were those who had completed all requirements for entering internship, who selected one or more of the partner high-needs schools for internship placement, and who were ultimately assigned to one of the partner high-needs schools. Block randomization was applied, with schools serving as blocks. After placement within a school, teacher candidates were randomly assigned to the enhanced internship or traditional internship within their assigned school. In schools where there were enough teacher candidates in Internships I and II, they were also randomly assigned to a condition with a semester of internship.

3.3. Participants

There were 158 teacher candidates who completed one or both internships at a partner high-needs school over the five years. Of these teacher candidates, approximately 53% of teacher candidates assigned to the EPM condition and about 46% assigned to BAU were underrepresented (Black, multi-racial, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander). Cox’s Index, an effect size measure for dichotomous variables that is comparable to Hedges’ g, was computed to determine baseline equivalence of race (White/Asian, underrepresented minority) for the 158 teacher candidates who completed one or both internships at a partner high-needs school over the five years and was found to be 0.17. Using the What Works Clearinghouse standard for baseline equivalence of less than 0.25, our finding suggests that the groups were sufficiently similar in terms of race at baseline.

Of the 103 who graduated during or before Fall 2023, 82% (n = 84) graduated with full teaching certificate licensure. Of those, 53 (63%) were employed at a public school in the state as a teacher-of-record in their first year post-graduation. The analytic sample for this study included 53 teachers-of-record. Of these 53, 44% (n = 11) of BAU teachers-of-record were underrepresented, and 46% (n = 13) of EPM teachers were underrepresented. Cox’s Index (d = 0.06) suggests that baseline equivalence for race based on condition was achieved.

3.4. Traditional, Business-as-Usual Internship

The traditional internship model consisted of a two-semester experience for undergraduates who were in the last two semesters of a program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Education in any specialization (e.g., elementary education). To be eligible for Internship I, students must have had an overall GPA and professional preparation and specialization GPA of at least 2.5, have passed all parts of the General Knowledge Test (GKT) 2F(The GKT is a computer-based test that measures proficiency in English language, reading, writing, and mathematics), and met any additional program-specific pre-requisites.

In addition to the three-credit internship experience, the students enrolled in an additional nine credit hours of co-requisite courses during Internship I, totaling 12 credit hours. Internship II students enrolled in a 9 h internship experience with a 3 h capstone course. Following the school district calendar, the Intern I students reported to their assigned schools twice per week, and at the midpoint and end of the semester, reported to their assigned schools for a full week. They were encouraged, but not required, to attend pre-planning at their assigned schools. Intern I students may have had the opportunity, at their supervising teachers’ discretion, to lead instruction once or twice per semester. The rest of their time was spent supporting the supervising teacher and observing. During the last few years of the project, most Intern I students remained with their initially assigned supervising teachers for the duration of Internship I, but a very small percentage split their time between a partner school and another assignment such as a virtual school.

Students in Internship II were in their assigned classrooms daily following the district calendar. They were expected to provide a substantial amount of instruction compared to the Intern I students. They attended their assigned schools’ professional learning community meetings just as any full-time teacher would do. Internship II was designed as a full-immersion clinical experience. Teacher candidates (both BAU and enhanced) were encouraged to complete Intern II at the same school at which Intern I was completed.

3.5. Enhanced Partnership Model (EPM) of Internship

The enhanced partnership model developed by the project and implemented at partner schools had the same entry requirements as the BAU model, but differed in how the teacher candidates were supported during their internships. The EPM consists of two components: (1) job-embedded coaching and (2) weekly professional learning meetings. Contrasted with the BAU internship model that is based on a minimum number of passive observations and varied support from the internship coordinators, the EPM enhanced the roles of traditional clinical coordinators as the university faculty member was embedded as a Professor-in-Residence (PIR) at the school site for an extended period each week. While PIRs varied in the amount of time spent at their school (ranging from several hours to at least one full day per week), what was consistent among PIRs is that there was time spent weekly at the school with support tailored to the needs of the teacher candidate. Additionally, teacher candidates, supervising teachers, and school administrators had access to the PIRs when they were not at the school via text, email, and phone conversations. As a result, the PIRs had much greater exposure to the school environment, engaged with administrators and supervising teachers regularly, and came to learn about the distinct needs of the classrooms in which the teacher candidates were placed. The PIRs were able to bridge the teacher candidates’ education at the university with the realities of teaching in the classroom—helping the teacher candidates adapt the research-based practices they learned in their programs with the practical realities of the classroom.

The job-embedded coaching and mentoring of the EPM extended beyond passive observation and feedback to permit the PIRs to actively coach the teacher candidates in their classrooms. By taking an active role, the PIRs participated in classroom activities, such as co-teaching, regularly assessing the classroom students, and modeling best practices, based on the individual needs of the teacher candidate. Having the PIRs located at the teacher candidates’ schools was important in providing timely support and feedback within the context of the school and classroom.

In addition to active coaching, the PIRs participated in weekly professional learning opportunities alongside the teacher candidates during their normally scheduled internship time. Initially, the weekly professional development was designed to be delivered in person at the internship site. Professional learning modules focused on culturally responsive teaching practices, differentiation, and active learning strategies that were developed, implemented, and coached within classrooms in selected high-need schools. However, the sessions became virtual because of COVID-19 during Fall 2020. The weekly face-to-face and virtual sessions were deemed successful in building community across school sites and assisted in ensuring treatment fidelity. During the later years of the project, professional learning was delivered as a hybrid model where some teacher candidates joined the professional learning session with their PIRs virtually, while others met onsite with their PIRs and attended in a virtual-together format. As the project expanded to secondary schools, finding a common time for the delivery of the professional learnings was difficult. In years four and five, to overcome the obstacle of time between elementary and secondary schools, the project delivered the sessions to secondary interns at a separate time.

The project developed a curriculum emphasizing universal design for learning for mathematics, culturally responsive teaching practices, and disciplinary literacy and supporting a positive classroom culture, including the wellness of teachers and teacher candidates. This curriculum was delivered in a rotational model, switching between mathematics and disciplinary literacy, and supporting positive classroom culture learning sessions. The curriculum was facilitated by mathematics and counselor education doctoral students.

3.6. Measures

Employment data were obtained annually from the University Assessment and Accreditation Office, as reported to them by the state Department of Education, or were obtained directly from the school at which the graduate was employed. The classification of schools as high needs was determined by their Title I status.

4. Results

Of the 53 first-year public school teachers-of-record included in the analytic sample, 61% (i.e., 25 of the 41) from the EPM condition were employed in high-needs schools in their first year post-graduation as compared to 39% (i.e., 16 of the 41) of teacher candidates in the BAU condition (

Table 1. Comparison of Teacher Employment by Condition in High-Needs Schools (HNS) and Non-HNS.

Treatment Condition	HNS Teacher-of-Record	Non-HNS Teacher-of-Record	Total
EPM (intervention)	25 (61.0%)	3 (25.0%)	28 (52.8%)
Business-as-usual Internship (BAU)	16 (39.0%)	9 (69.2%)	25 (47.2%)
Total	41 (77.4%)	12 (22.6%)	53 (100%)

). A chi square test of association was computed to examine the relationship between condition (EPM vs. BAU) and employment (high-needs school vs. non high-needs school). This relationship was statistically significant (${\chi }^2=4.821$, df = 1, p = 0.028). As indicated by the odds ratio, teacher candidates in the EPM were nearly 4.5 times more likely to be employed at a high-needs school upon graduation as compared to traditional teacher candidates (OR 4.43, CI 1.10, 23.60). The confidence interval for the odds ratio suggests that the likelihood of employment in a high-needs school was 10% to nearly 24 times more likely for teacher candidates in the EPM internship relative to the business-as-usual internship.

5. Discussion

One of the goals for the EPM was to increase the numbers and diversity of teacher candidates within the university’s teacher preparation program. As a result of various recruitment strategies included in a multiple-pathway recruitment plan implemented by both the school district and the university, the university saw a 20% increase in undergraduate students in elementary education programs, with more than 7% of teacher candidates requesting school placement in high-need schools for their internship requirements. These results differed from the reported teacher shortage, which describes a decline in the number of undergraduates that choose teaching as a career [16,17], and research that reports that high-poverty schools tend to experience this at a greater rate, with lower interest in teaching at high-poverty schools [18]. The diversity of teacher candidates participating in [blinded name] increased from 35% to 51% because of efforts within this project. Although participants in this research demonstrated increases, inadequate numbers resulted in fewer study participants being placed in partner schools, impacting the statistical analyses.

The results of the state-administered content knowledge assessments of the pre-service teacher candidates were also collected. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of all the teacher candidates scored “proficient” on university competencies and state-administered certification examinations, an increase from 92% the previous year, indicating that the professional learning sessions may be beneficial.

In addition, there was a 243% increase in teacher candidate placements at the partner high-needs schools. Specifically, from fall 2015 to the pilot semester of spring 2019, 7% of interns requested placement at a partner high-needs school. Through targeted recruitment efforts made by the project, placement at a partner high-need school increased to 24% of internships. This equates to a placement increase in high-needs schools of 243% (i.e., $\left(\left(0.24-0.07\right)/0.07\right)\times 100=242.86\%$). To accommodate the increase in teacher candidates requesting placement in a partner high-needs school, additional supervising teachers needed to be recruited. Through this partnership, efforts to help teachers of record meet supervising teacher criteria were developed. During the five years of this project and across the nine partner schools, the pool of eligible supervising teachers who met all criteria set by the state and the university increased by 95, from an initial pool of 26 teachers (Fall, 2019) to a total of 121 supervising teachers (Fall, 2023).

Efforts to employ and retain graduates in high-needs schools post-graduation have been successful. Impacts and positive results were also evidenced by an increase in the numbers and diversity of supervising teachers within high-needs schools and the retention of teacher candidates as teachers within the partner urban school district. As noted previously, teacher candidates who became teachers-of-record in the first-year post-graduation and completed the EPM of internship were about 4.5 times more likely to be employed at high-needs schools as compared to traditional teacher candidates. Regarding the three-year retention rates, of the teacher candidates who completed the EPM (both intervention and traditional) and became a teacher-of-record in the partner district in their first-year post-graduation, 75% (n = 6 of 8) continue to teach in high-needs schools.

6. Conclusions

Addressing the recruitment, development, and retention of teachers requires collaborative, multifaceted approaches to develop partnerships with educators from both school districts and universities focused on teacher preparation and support. The educational community, policymakers, and stakeholders must collaboratively co-construct and evaluate models to ensure that every student, regardless of their abilities, has access to high-quality teachers. In addition, the evaluation of these innovative models must be informed by robust research methods.

This research focused on an enhanced partnership model (EPM), co-constructed and co-implemented by each of the major stakeholders: administrators within the school district; the faculty within the School of Teacher Education (STE) and Clinical Experiences; and administrators within the College. Job-embedded professional learning and mentoring was sustained and intensive, and content was researched in this study utilizing an experimental design. Given the complexities of multiple variables, including the conditions, numbers of participants, and contextual variabilities, among school settings when conducting experimental research within high-needs schools, lower treatment fidelity, statistical power, and numbers of participants may occur. Published research illuminating the issues are reported elsewhere when evaluating complex interventions in the social sciences [21,22].

However, the collaboration, innovation, and implementation across multiple indices and stakeholders from this EPM project evidenced improved outcomes across multiple measures. The goal was to assure that the researched components (e.g., professional learning modules, evaluation procedures, coaching, products, revised roles of the Professors-In-Residence, school placement processes, etc.) of the EPM would positively affect the recruitment, development, and retention of diverse teachers to effectively teach the students in high-needs schools.

The knowledge, skills, and relationships of the participating PIRs, supervising teachers, and teacher candidates encouraged progressive, reflective interactions to synergize and develop knowledge and leadership among participating educators. Through ongoing collaboration and communication, the multiple roles of the PIRs and supervising teachers evolved and varied from initial mentor to clinical coach based upon the situational discussions and presenting opportunities. The initial focus was to enhance and connect the university’s theory and practice to real-life classroom contexts for the teacher candidates during their internships. The results across multiple measures evidenced improvements in each of the researched areas. The recruitment of diverse teacher candidates increased in both intern placements at high-needs schools and subsequent employment upon graduation in high-needs schools. Within classrooms at K-12 schools and universities, pathways to new opportunities and enhancements can be created and sustained by school and university partnerships that employ enhanced, collaborative practices for continuous learning within supportive learning communities.