Recruiting and retaining quality educators

Recruiting and retaining quality educators has a significant impact on student outcomes. In Alaska, continuously high levels of educator turnover adversely impacts student learning, school district stability, community, and public support for education.

For many Alaska school districts, it is becoming nearly impossible to fill teacher vacancies. Stability for principals and superintendents has also become volatile, which influences overall institutional stability.

Education funding has a direct impact on the ability to hire and retain teachers as it affects salaries and also available instructional resources, support staff, building conditions, and available housing.

Affordable available teacher housing is an increasingly prevalent issue for school districts on and off the road system, with appropriate housing simply unavailable in some villages and out of reach for teachers in urban areas due to high housing costs.

We seek to increase pathways for locally prepared teachers, reduce the challenges that lead to teacher turnover, and expand the practices that lead great teachers to stay. Additionally, our state must address the issues that affect Alaska’s competitiveness in educator recruitment: salary and benefits, retirement system, professional development and support, teacher housing, and connectivity.

Coalition for Education Equity supports:

• Investment in teacher housing; assistance with and simplification of applying to and obtaining grants for building, rehabilitating, and maintaining teacher housing;

• Reform/reinstitute teacher retirement system (defined benefit/defined contribution plans);

• Implementation of recommendations of the Governor’s Teacher Recruitment & Retention Task Force (https://aklearns.org/trr/);

• State sponsorship of J-1, H1-B, and other visas for teachers;

• Robust alternative pathways for developing high quality local Alaska teachers.