#498 – From Hiring to Belonging: A New Approach to Building the Educator Workforce, with Dr. Brenda Lewis

If you are listening to the podcast with your instructional team or would like to explore this topic more deeply, here are guiding questions to prompt your reflection:

• What makes educators feel a true sense of belonging in a school district?
• How does staff morale influence teacher retention?
• What barriers keep people from entering the teaching profession today?
• How can mentorship programs better support new educators?
• What does Grow Your Own talent development look like in your district?
• What is one step that your school could take to move from hiring to belonging?

• Fridley Public Schools (official website)
• AVID (official website)
• AVID Certified Educator (AVID)
• AVID Summer Institute (AVID)
• AVID National Conference (AVID)

#498 From Hiring to Belonging: A New Approach to Building the Educator Workforce, with Dr. Brenda Lewis

AVID Open Access
34 min

Transcript

The following transcript was automatically generated from the podcast audio by generative artificial intelligence.  Because of the automated nature of the process, this transcript may include unintended transcription and mechanical errors.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 0:00 What I will say too is it’s one thing to recruit, it’s a whole other thing to retain. And we are very proud of our retention rates. And that comes right back to morale. If you feel good, if you feel valued, if you feel like the district is a great place to work, then you’ll stay.

Rena Clark 0:18 The topic for today’s podcast is “From Hiring to Belonging: A New Approach to Building the Educator Workforce,” with Dr. Brenda Lewis.

Rena Clark 0:28 Unpacking Education is brought to you by AVID. AVID believes in seeing the potential of every student. To learn more about AVID, visit their website at avid.org.

Rena Clark 0:40 Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I’m Rena Clark,

Paul Beckermann 0:50 I’m Paul Beckermann,

Winston Benjamin 0:52 and I’m Winston Benjamin. We are educators,

Paul Beckermann 0:56 and we’re here to share insights and actionable strategies.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 1:01 Education is our passport to the future.

Rena Clark 1:05 Our quote for today is one of the vision statements from the Fridley School District website. It reads, “Our world-class professional workforce is dedicated to collaboration and best-practice education. Embrace our dedication to Fridley Public Schools that fosters a deep sense of pride and respect, ensuring a safe and supportive environment where everyone belongs.” All right, Paul, I like seeing that vision statement.

Paul Beckermann 1:34 What a great vision statement for a school. I really appreciate how it focuses on people and creating that positive environment where everybody can thrive. Just think how great that would be if everywhere we went, from the ground up — classroom, school building, district, community — everybody was focused in on a vision like that. I love that Fridley is making this a priority. Really cool.

Rena Clark 1:57 Yeah, and I love that they’re creating a place where educators feel valued, supported, and connected. And I can say, as someone who has been in three districts in the last three years for various reasons, that really makes a difference. It’s a palpable difference being in different places, because you can feel it when they truly are walking that out.

Paul Beckermann 2:22 Isn’t that true. You walk in a building and you can sense that feeling and environment that that building has. Yeah, that’s cool.

Rena Clark 2:29 So I am excited because we’re going to be welcoming to the show today Dr. Brenda Lewis, who is the superintendent of Fridley Public Schools. Welcome. It’s so good to have you here.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 2:40 Thanks for hosting me.

Rena Clark 2:42 Yes, and we always like to ground ourselves and know who we’re speaking with. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in education?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 2:48 Sure. This is actually my 26th year in K–12 education. This is finishing up my third year as superintendent of Fridley Public Schools, and it’s my first superintendency. So it’s quite an honor to be here in Fridley and to be serving our community as superintendent.

I came what I would say is maybe a little bit more of the traditional route. I started as a first-grade teacher, then became an assistant principal and a principal, and then was able to serve on the cabinet in multiple districts. So I was able to get experience as an assistant superintendent, as a Director of Teaching and Learning, and I’ve actually been a building administrator at all levels — elementary, middle, high, and early childhood. That’s been really valuable.

My experiences also include districts as large as Montgomery County, Maryland Public Schools, which is 165,000 students and 208 schools. And then, ironically, Fridley Public Schools is the smallest public school district I’ve worked in. I’ve also worked in China, so a lot of different places that have really strengthened me. And I did want to add that I’ve been involved with AVID since 2009, so lots of experience with AVID.

Rena Clark 3:50 Alright, we like to hear that. So we’re going to talk a little bit about teacher retention today and the current challenges around it, as it’s a challenge for districts all over. Could you tell us a little bit about what’s happening right now as far as educator staffing goes — what made you realize that Fridley Public Schools maybe needed a different approach to teacher recruitment and retention, and what that approach looks like?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 4:15 Sure. Right now, we are actually in a great place with our staffing. I’m going to back up and explain why I can say that confidently. When I arrived in Fridley Public Schools, we had numerous unfilled vacancies, mostly in the area of special education teaching and special education para educators — not an uncommon situation.

The other piece we were really struggling with, which cut directly at the morale of our buildings, was substitutes. It would not be uncommon for our building principals at 6:00 a.m. to have 13 unfilled vacancies, and that’s after our contracted-out service filled the vacancies they were able to fill. What does that do? It causes teachers to not have planning and prep time. It causes teachers to not have lunch. We have to divide up classes, and all of this compromises the student learning environment. When teachers are tired and are not able to get their planning time, that doesn’t help anyone.

I had been in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and we had a very similar problem with our vacancy rates. I started the international talent program there, which means we sponsor teachers on the H-1B visa program. I brought that to Fridley, and then it expanded. We were able to fill our special education teacher vacancies — yay. We then expanded that to building subs, so all of our buildings have a minimum of three general-ed building subs per building, plus we have

Paul Beckermann 6:42 Wow.

Rena Clark 6:43 That’s why we’re smiling over here — yay!

Dr. Brenda Lewis 6:47 — a dedicated sub per building as well. And then we are working to also build a cadre of district-level subs that we can push out to our buildings each day.

We also built a program to fill all of our special education para educator positions using what’s called an H-3 visa program for special ed trainees. That’s an 18-month visa, and it also brings talent into our district that we can pipeline into teaching positions.

We’ve also worked extremely hard to recruit talent that is sitting in our high school, middle school, and elementary classrooms right now. We are very intentional about talking to our students and saying, “If you’ve thought about being a teacher, by the way, if you become a para educator with us, we will 100% pay your tuition. Then you can be a special ed teacher. We’ll pay you while you student teach. You can be one of our alumni and a teacher.” I always dangle in front of them what the starting teacher salary is, because as a high school senior, that sounds pretty great.

What I will say too is it’s one thing to recruit, it’s a whole other thing to retain. And we are very proud of our retention rates. And that comes right back to morale. If you feel good, if you feel valued, if you feel like the district is a great place to work, then you’ll stay.

Rena Clark 8:20 That actually leads into a question I have around barriers, because you talked about some of these programs. What are some of the biggest barriers you see for people who want to become educators or teachers, and where do people get stuck in the process?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 8:40 I think one of the barriers is that we have a situation in our country where education — especially public education — is not looked at in the manner that it once was. There are parts of our country that feel that public education isn’t valuable, and I think that’s really hard when you’re working in a service profession where your own profession is under attack. To be very honest with you, when I got into the profession 26 years ago, everybody respected teachers. And now you just feel this divide where some of America doesn’t trust us, and that cuts pretty deep.

The second barrier is that, especially for people for whom K–12 didn’t come easy — maybe they didn’t feel belonging, maybe they don’t want to be in the school setting for their profession — we have to work at not only saying “you can do this,” but “we want you to be a part of this.” Breaking down that barrier is really where we focus. We work with our recent grads on how to pass the ParaPro. We work hard to help them pass it. We provide supports as they begin their coursework with us, and we talk through what it feels like when maybe you don’t do well on a paper, and how we’re here to support you. We use cohort models, which really help.

Another barrier is financial. It is scary to take out loans. Our district is 80% students of color and 72% children coming from poverty. When we recruit our grads, for the most part, they don’t have a college fund waiting for them. So when we can say we’ll remove the financial barriers — our grant programs also include money for housing stipends — I think taking away those barriers really helps.

And then I think another barrier is just that when you’re working day to day as a para or student teaching and you have a moment where it feels like the entire world has collapsed, how we’re right there to come in and say, “It’s painful. It hurts right now. But guess what? Congratulations, you’re normal. Not every day is going to be perfect, and we’re here to wrap you in support.” Those barriers, plus the different ways we can combat them, really make a difference.

I also think it’s intimidating sometimes for individuals of color to go into education. We’re very intentional about saying, “You belong here.” I often hear people say that kids of color need to see role models who are educators of color. While I agree with that, I think all children need to see educators of color. So we really work to make sure that we have environments where individuals feel belonging, especially our staff of color.

Paul Beckermann 11:56 You talked a little bit at the beginning about building this talent pipeline from within, and that’s really cool, because if you bring up people from within your district, they naturally represent the students of that district. They can see that hard work and effort can lift them to a position of real respect in a school. I’m curious — how did you get that going? What did it take? Because you did a lot of innovation to make that happen. What was that story like?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 12:31 I would love to say that I had a vision board and it was absolutely perfect. But the reality is, every time we had a shortcoming, I skinned my knees and we just found a way to get there. It started small. It started by applying for the Grow Your Own grant, and then we got it, and we were able to open doors. Then we applied for another grant through PELSB, got it, and were able to open more doors. Then it came from recognizing that our Grow Your Own participants were struggling in certain content areas. So we built a monthly support series where they come in, they get paid for it, and we provide that support. It was step by step.

We also have the AVID New Educator program. We’re the first in the nation, I believe, to have the AVID New Educator Academy, and it was built from a place of wanting to retain our educators. It came because we were seeing common struggles with our new-to-the-profession teachers, and our international teachers were experiencing the same types of struggles — classroom management, how to serve students on IEPs — just very similar strands. So we went to AVID and said, “Hey, can you help us?” and we talked through that together.

I think it’s really been problem, solution, problem, solution — and then it all comes together. While my work in Fridley is three years, I had actually been doing this work for two years prior, so we get to build upon those experiences and see how it all comes together.

Rena Clark 14:26 Can you talk a little bit more about the AVID Early Career Educator Academy? We have a lot of listeners who might be in AVID districts, and maybe some who aren’t. What does that program provide, and how does it help with some of the things a district might struggle with?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 14:47 First and foremost, it provides you with a cohort. Sometimes misery loves a little bit of company, right? You can hear, “I’m not the only one struggling with this,” and that gives a little bit of validation. That camaraderie really helps.

Also, the side-by-side support that AVID gives and provides is really in-depth. When our teachers are hearing AVID strategies at their professional learning, their staff meetings, and from instructional coaches, it’s not the first time they’re hearing it — they’re actually immersed in it through this program as well.

What I also think it does is create a further pipeline within AVID, so that graduates of this program go on to become AVID-certified educators or mentors, and then they give back to the next group coming along. It gives content, it gives camaraderie, and it gives belonging all in one.

It also helps by giving you a network for when, maybe, you get a parent email at three in the morning that feels really cutting. You have mentors and you have each other to reach out to, which is a little different from reaching out to your principal. It gives you so many different vantage points along the way.

Rena Clark 16:27 Let me just recap what I’ve heard so far. You have a Grow Your Own program, so within your own district you’re growing your own talent. I know I was in a district that had something similar — para educators, and even a CTE course where high schoolers would go into the elementaries and provide lessons. You also have the AVID New Educator Academy. Am I missing anything? And I’m curious — as someone who’s a 20-year veteran going into a new district, I still need support, too, just a different kind. Is there anything else you all provide?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 17:16 Yes, we also provide direct support through our AVID district director’s side-by-side support. Our district is small enough that our teachers know who our AVID district director is. She does model lessons on strategies. She’s there in your classroom, and we’re extremely intentional about the work she does.

I also very much prioritize, even during fiscally hard times — which is kind of the norm for most districts — going to Summer Institute. It is so important for our educators to be at Summer Institute and engaged in other AVID professional learning. Sometimes we bring AVID on-site. Sometimes our AVID educators go to neighboring school districts. Sometimes we go to national conference.

I also promote that our people bring back that learning and directly impact our newer educators or those who are new to our district. And Rena, you’re reminding me too that our international talent usually has an average of about 18 years of teaching experience. So they’re coming into our district with very few or zero years of teaching in the US, but a lot of overall teaching experience. We modify the support accordingly, because being a year-zero teacher with no experience anywhere is very different from being new to the US with 18 years of experience. That plays out in things like IEP processes, which are very specific to the US. Those are just some of the ways we work to ensure we have multiple AVID resources right here in our district.

Paul Beckermann 19:30 I’m curious to follow up on the international visa program. Where do most of your visa applicants come from? And how do your students react to having teachers from other countries?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 19:42 Great question. A lot of our international talent is from the Philippines. We also have a number from West Africa, East Africa, India, and Canada — so it’s from all over, but heavily from the Philippines and from Kenya.

The reason we source heavily from those two countries, particularly for the H-3 special education trainee and special education teaching positions, is that you need a special education background. Not all countries have that, but the Philippines has a really deep level of special education within their system, and so does Kenya. I’m also actively looking to source from Mexico, South America, and other countries, so we’re really broadening that.

I also had the benefit of starting the program in Grand Forks, where I drew on teachers I had known from the international school in China. That’s where it got started.

The good thing about our Grow Your Own program is we can bring candidates from really any country, put them immediately into a master’s degree in special education, have them earn a Tier 2 license — which is what it’s called in Minnesota — and grow them into becoming special educators.

And as for how our students respond — we are in such a fabulous place in Fridley with our demographics. We’re about 40% students who racially identify as Black, with a heavy concentration of East African and West African students. Our students love to see their cultures represented in the teachers we bring in. We’re also an International Baccalaureate district — one of only 13 districts in the nation with a pre-K through 12 IB continuum — and that aligns directly with our international talent work.

We’re also 26% Hispanic/Latino, so again, our students love seeing themselves in their teachers. It has really enriched our whole district in terms of cultural responsiveness and belonging.

I will also say that when I came to Fridley, we had 6% teachers of color and 26% of our non-licensed staff was staff of color. Now, in my third year, we’re at 26% teachers of color — a combination of our Grow Your Own domestic program, our Grow Your Own international program, and our international recruitment. We’re also over 52% non-licensed staff of color. In a three-year time frame, I think that’s really incredible work.

Paul Beckermann 22:53 That really is.

Rena Clark 22:54 It should be celebrated.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 22:56 Thank you.

Rena Clark 22:57 So I feel like you’re sharing quite a bit of advice and ideas about programs that some people may have never heard of. What would you say to another superintendent who’s considering how to better support their early career educators? Where is a good place to start?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 23:20 Honestly, and I mean this with my whole heart: if there’s any way you can break down fiscal barriers to do it, please do the AVID New Educator program. It is, by and large, the best investment we have made in our teachers and in our district.

I would also say to any superintendent, administrator, or anyone listening — they can reach out to me, and I can host them virtually or physically in our district so they can see what that looks like in action. That investment is so much more than what it costs from a professional learning standpoint, because you’re not having to fill vacancies from rapid turnover all the time. Longer term, it’s more fiscally responsible to invest on the front end than to deal with constant turnover, which is costly both financially and in other ways — especially in special education, which already has a high turnover rate.

I would also try to couple it with AVID-certified educators, because then you have a pipeline of certified educators receiving consistent professional learning who also serve as helpers and mentors to the folks in the AVID New Educator program.

Paul Beckermann 25:03 That’s awesome. So for a final question before we move into our toolkit — first, if there’s anything we didn’t ask that you’d like to add, please do. But also, what gives you hope? What are you excited about or encouraged by as you look forward?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 25:25 I’m encouraged and excited about the fact that people keep choosing my district. Given the demographics I described, we’re maybe not seen by some as a destination district. But what gives me hope is our retention rates — so it’s working.

Some of your listeners may know that we became front and center nationally, alongside another district that was targeted by ICE during a Metro surge, in a very difficult manner. I have seen resiliency unlike anything else in the way our educators have shown up every single day for our students, our children, and each other — including having to build a virtual program in four days to keep our students safe, at the height of which over 423 students were enrolled.

So I would have to say that despite how public education is sometimes under attack across our nation, our teachers and our staff show up every day. They wrap our children in support, love, accountability, and rigor with support. If a district can come out of an ICE Metro surge the way that we did, that gives me massive amounts of hope.

Paul Beckermann 26:53 Well, thank you for everything you’re doing there. I can tell you love your school, your staff, and your students, and that just exudes from you.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 27:00 Thank you.

Rena Clark 27:01 You really do. I keep coming back to the fact that sometimes we have mission statements and vision statements that are just words — but I feel this one is completely genuine. You truly do have that supportive environment where everyone belongs, and it seems like that’s true at every level. So let’s jump into our next section — our toolkit.

Transition Music with Rena’s Children 27:23 Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What’s in the toolkit? Check it out.

Rena Clark 27:34 It’s going to be hard to narrow it down to one tool — you’ve already left us with quite a few. But Paul and I will jump in, and then Brenda, you can add in too if there’s something you want to put in the toolkit. Paul, you want to start us off?

Paul Beckermann 27:50 Oh boy, that’s a big task.

Rena Clark 27:52 This one — I’m like, oh, we need a whole tool chest.

Paul Beckermann 27:56 I’ve got the one I planned, and then I have another one that came to me while Brenda was talking. We never stick to one anyway, Rena.

I just love the intentionality of building a district that is supportive, that cares for kids, that wants to honor and grow their own, and bring in people who reflect and support their students. That takes intentionality — it’s not just going to happen. And we heard from Brenda that it takes persistence. You’re constantly looking for the next way to make things better. I think that intentionality is really key.

And then I just want to throw in — if you’re interested in AVID Summer Institutes, the Certified Educator program, the AVID Early Educator Academy, or any of those things, go to avid.org and check it out. If you’re not finding what you need there, reach out and we’re happy to get you connected with the right people. Rena, what do you got?

Rena Clark 29:05 I think it all centers around the fact that — while AVID is wonderful and I always want to support it — sometimes you don’t have that opportunity. But hopefully you have some kind of system for mentors and support. As someone who has been through some transitions myself over the last couple of years, for me it comes down to: how do we support not just the first five years, but also those who are new to the district, at every level — from that first day as a new educator to being new to the building?

And beyond just the professional side — maybe they’re even new to living in the community. One concrete thing: giving a bus tour of the district and surrounding community establishments is huge. Lots of times educators don’t live in the same community where they work, so making those connections and building that support is really helpful.

Alright, Brenda — I don’t know, we’ve had a lot of things. Is there anything else you want to add to this toolkit?

Paul Beckermann 30:08 There’s room in the toolkit. You can squeeze something in there.

Rena Clark 30:12 It’s a chest. It’s a whole tool chest.

Paul Beckermann 30:14 Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 30:16 My tool chest contribution is actually pretty simple, but I think it’s so powerful: bring individuals to Nat Con. When they hear the messages there, it’s transformative. Nat Con has so many different school districts and organizations represented that you can truly choose what speaks to your area of passion. And Nat Con really hits on everything from new teachers all the way to 20-year veterans — there’s something there for everyone. That’s what I would put in the toolkit. Is that cheating?

Paul Beckermann 30:56 That’s not cheating. And for our listeners who may not be familiar, Nat Con is our national conference for AVID, and you can find information on that at avid.org as well. All right, let’s jump into our One Thing.

Transition Music 31:10 It’s that One Thing.

Paul Beckermann 31:20 All right, One Thing time. What are you thinking, Rena? What’s your final takeaway?

Rena Clark 31:26 The importance of layered support. It’s one thing — but it’s really about all the many things working together. As we were talking with Brenda, we heard about all the different things she’s doing in support of one outcome. It takes layers.

Paul Beckermann 31:41 Yeah, and I’m just impressed with all the thinking outside the box and finding creative ways to improve your district — for your students, for your staff, for everybody. Creating what some might not perceive as a destination district into a place where people want to stay once they get there and find the magic in it. You’re definitely doing things right there, and I commend you for that. And now it’s your turn, Brenda. What would you like to leave our listeners with as a final thought today?

Dr. Brenda Lewis 32:13 Stay persistent. You’re going to skin your knees — I talk about that all the time — but at least you tried. And it’s not really worse than all of the unfilled vacancies you already have, right? So just try it. Take that risk. Move forward. Because for many of the larger districts, I’ve seen 130 vacancies in special education numerous times. Hey — take that risk, because I don’t think you can get worse than 130 vacancies. So let’s just try it.

Rena Clark 32:50 I so appreciate Dr. Brenda Lewis and your thoughtfulness, and what you’re doing to support your district — and for being a leader and showing us how we can fill those vacancies. Because apparently, it can only get better from here.

Paul Beckermann 33:06 Thanks for joining us, Brenda.

Dr. Brenda Lewis 33:08 So good to be here. Thanks to both of you.

Rena Clark 33:12 Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.

Winston Benjamin 33:15 We invite you to visit us at avidopenaccess.org, where you can discover resources to support student agency and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners.

Rena Clark 33:29 And remember — go forth and be awesome.

Winston Benjamin 33:33 Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann 33:35 You make a difference.