Network members come together around their commitment to four specific policy ideas: high expectations, great educators, innovative options, and responsive systems. The details below reflect members work to support great educators. Read on for examples of how members are working to ensure that teachers and leaders are excellent, well-trained educators who continue to improve their instructional practice through support and development guided by meaningful and actionable evaluation. Click here to explore the full 2020 Network Member Priorities overview.

How many Network members are prioritizing initiatives focused on great educators?

Great educators were a top priority in 2018 and 2019, and that trend will continue in 2020. Thirty-two PIE Network members in 21 states are prioritizing educator policy and advocacy issues in 2020—more than any other policy area. The majority of these members plan to focus on educator diversity, preparation, and recruitment. Other focus areas include elevating teacher voice and improving compensation systems.

What initiatives are Network members prioritizing to support great educators?

Below, you’ll see lists of member organizations who plan to work on similar educator policies. Click on one of the orange bullets below to jump directly to that topic. If you’re interested in connecting with any of the organizations listed below, reach out for an introduction.

• Career Ladders
• Educator Advocacy
• Educator Compensation
• Educator Diversity
• Educator Preparation
• Educator Recruitment
• Educator Support and Evaluation
• Principal Policy
• Other Educator Policies

Career Ladders

• Alabama | A+ Education Partnership: Secure funding for a pilot program to develop career pathways to reward and retain highly effective teachers
• Indiana | Teach Plus Indiana: Assist implementation of pilot Teacher Leadership grant program
• Nevada | Teach Plus Nevada: Advocate for implementation of teacher leadership model within local school district.
• North Carolina | BEST NC: Expand and make permanent Advanced Teaching Roles program

Educator Advocacy

• California | Educators for Excellence-Los Angeles: Continue to build our movement of equity and excellence minded teachers
• Indiana | Teach Plus Indiana: Inform the recommendation of the Governor’s Pay Commission to the State legislature by collecting teacher voice
• Massachusetts | Teach Plus Massachusetts: Support teacher voice in influencing new policy and implementation in Providence and Rhode Island as a whole
• Massachusetts | Educators for Excellence-Boston: Build an engaged cohort of educators to regularly engage on current policy opportunities
• Nevada | Teach Plus Nevada: Design and assist with implementation of exit survey to inform recommendation(s) of teacher retention strategies.
• Washington, D.C. | FOCUS: Ensuring school leaders are involved in education policy conversations

Educator Compensation

• Idaho | Idaho Business for Education: Raising teacher salaries
• Illinois | Stand for Children Illinois: Address the inequities in how employer costs for teacher pensions are handled
• Indiana | Stand for Children Indiana: Teacher pay
• Louisiana | Democrats for Education Reform Louisiana: Support an increased investment in teacher pay and higher education funding
• Louisiana | Stand for Children Louisiana: Support legislation to reform the teacher pension system and pay down unfunded liability

Educator Diversity

• California | Teach Plus California: Support legislation to better measure and report investments to improve teacher diversity and retention
• Colorado | Teach Plus Colorado: Recruitment and retention of teachers of color
• Colorado | Democrats for Education Reform Colorado: Increase teacher diversity in Colorado by recruiting and retaining under-represented teachers of color
• Connecticut | Educators for Excellence-Connecticut: Educator diversity
• Delaware | DelawareCAN: Increase teacher diversity in Delaware
• Delaware | Rodel Foundation of Delaware: Expand quality/diversity of teacher residents in high need schools
• Illinois | Teach Plus Illinois: Support legislation to change and make more effective the Minority Teacher Scholarship Program
• Illinois | Stand for Children Illinois: Fight for teacher shortage in Illinois with a particular focus on improving teacher diversity.
• Massachusetts | Teach Plus Massachusetts: Support programs and policies to recruit and retain a more diverse teacher workforce
• Massachusetts | Educators for Excellence-Boston: Launch a campaign around diversifying the teaching force in Massachusetts
• Minnesota | Educators for Excellence-Minnesota: Ensuring equitable distribution of high quality, diverse educators
• New Mexico | NewMexicoKidsCAN: Build an educator workforce that is more reflective of current student demographics
• New York | Educators for Excellence-New York: Support legislation to measurably increase teacher diversity

Educator Preparation

• Colorado | Teach Plus Colorado: Educator preparation programs
• Illinois | Teach Plus Illinois: Support legislation to create a tuition waiver program for candidates who are certified to fill ESL or Bilingual positions
• Illinois | Teach Plus Illinois: Influence higher ed programs to effectively integrate SEL instruction into their programs
• Indiana | Teach Plus Indiana: Support legislation to incorporate SEL and Trauma informed practices into curriculum for educator prep programs
• Indiana | Teach Plus Indiana: Assist implementation of pilot teacher residency program
• Minnesota | EdAllies: Ensure policies related to teacher preparation in Minnesota reflect best practices and current research, are flexible and encourage multiple pathways, are aligned to equity and student achievement, and are accessible for Native American teacher candidates and candidates of color
• New York | Educators for Excellence-New York: Use released teacher preparation program data to promote high quality teacher prep programs
• Tennessee | Tennesseans for Student Success: Support legislation to improve teacher prep programs
• Texas | Educate Texas: Make recommendations related to educator preparation, with a focus on takeaways from the first year of the edTPA pilot

Educator Recruitment

• Illinois | Teach Plus Illinois: Support legislation to introduce a pipeline to teaching program for HS students
• Illinois | Educators for Excellence-Chicago: Advocating for legislation meant to recruit and retain educator and student-facing roles (like clinicians) to address state’s shortages
• Illinois | Advance Illinois: Develop and support a comprehensive, coordinated, ambitious plan to build a stronger, more diverse educator pipeline – one that recruits and retains talented, diverse educators and fills gaps in high-need subjects and regions.
• Indiana | Teach Plus Indiana: Support legislation to create a statewide teacher supply and demand dashboard
• Indiana | Stand for Children Indiana: Teacher supply and demand report
• Mississippi | Mississippi First: Conduct research on the current state of the educator pipeline in Mississippi
• New Jersey | JerseyCAN: Strengthening the talent pipeline and improving the quantity and quality of teachers
• North Carolina | BEST NC: Acquire state funding for TeachNC (a new statewide teacher recruitment initiative)

Educator Support and Evaluation

• Connecticut | Educators for Excellence-Connecticut: Teacher retention and sustainability
• Illinois | Teach Plus Illinois: Support legislation to re-establish a mentoring program in IL
• Massachusetts | Teach Plus Massachusetts: Develop supports and training for teachers to implement research based SEL strategies in the classroom
• New York | Educators for Excellence-New York: Work with the NYCDOE to launch a process for vetting and improving the quality of professional development offered to educators in the district
• Tennessee | Tennesseans for Student Success: Support legislation to improve teacher quality

Principal Policy

• Connecticut | ReadyCT: Increase induction and leadership support for school leaders
• Hawaii | HawaiiKidsCAN: Grow the pipeline of quality school leaders and identify an alternative route to certification for school leaders.
• North Carolina | BEST NC: Increase principal salaries and protect transformed salary schedule

Other Educator Policies

• California | Educators for Excellence-Los Angeles: Support teachers to take on leadership positions within their union
• Connecticut | Educators for Excellence-Connecticut: Affordable educator housing
• Connecticut | Educators for Excellence-Connecticut: Union elections
• Illinois | Educators for Excellence-Chicago: Supporting creation of a district-wide equitable staffing model
• Illinois | Educators for Excellence-Chicago: Helping more teachers get more involved with their union
• Minnesota | Educators for Excellence-Minnesota: Electing diverse, democratic, student-centered union leadership

Click here to return to the 2020 Network Member Priorities overview.