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In this conceptual article, the authors examine changes to the United States educational ecology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article draws on contemporary and historical research to critique how K–12 school policies and educational leadership decisions are made amidst a crisis. As schools and districts continue to navigate a shifting educational context, teachers are often left out of the discussion. The authors set out to argue that teachers should be at the center of any plan to move forward and that support for teachers and humanizing approaches to teaching and learning should be at the forefront of any change. Drawing on theories of an educational ecology, the authors investigate how this moment of rapid change might be leveraged, through their exploration of future-oriented educational policies. In doing so, they highlight key areas of the educational ecology with the most potential to (re)humanize teachers' work and support the well-being of students. These include creating policies and systems of preparation and support for historically marginalized groups of teachers, advocating for a more human-centered curriculum, and taking a cautious approach to the presence of technology for instructional and pedagogical purposes. The authors conclude with a call for intellectual solidarity, increases in teacher prestige, and new visions of accountability, ideology, curriculum, and human exchange.

Research suggests that work environments are associated with turnover patterns for teachers of Color. This study investigates variation in work environments using longitudinal administrative data from 20 large urban and suburban K-12 school districts. Results indicate that teachers of Color are more often employed in “hard-to-staff” work environments compared to their White colleagues. Despite this, findings demonstrate high relative levels of teacher experience in schools where teachers of Color, specifically Latinx educators, represent a majority of the teaching staff. These results have implications for educational policy and practice, specifically in the areas of teacher preparation, recruitment, hiring, and retention.

The teacher education and preparation marketplace is a complex mix of traditional and alternative programs. Though prior studies have identified a great deal of variation across these programs, an analysis of innovation has been limited. Drawing on theories of organizational innovation, and specifically, dimensions of innovation related to organizational structure, processes, and outcomes, we conduct an exploratory study of innovation in Texas’ teacher preparation marketplace. This descriptive study of teacher preparation programs includes an analysis of state and national data across three years (2014-2017). Data also include results from a content analysis of 30 sample program websites. Although most programs met accountability requirements, we found few programs signaled innovation related to program, teacher, and workforce characteristics. Rather, we identified organizational assimilation as programs adopted similar features to remain competitive. Our analysis suggests programs should critically unpack what it means to be innovative in a dynamic and competitive teacher preparation marketplace.

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