Company: Accenture Song

Client: Tennessee Department of Education

Country: USA

The US is experiencing one of the most severe teacher shortages in our nation's history. American educators are losing autonomy in the classroom and gaining workload while salaries remain stagnant.

Teaching as a profession suffers from a lack of respect and devaluation of the teacher experience. Children ultimately bear the effects when even the most passionate teachers consider leaving the profession.

Collaborating with a state education agency, we reimagined the teacher's experience by developing strategies for increasing teacher retention. After a robust research effort, we listened to the experiences of more than 130 educators, through which we uncovered seven thematic insights:

• Teachers are not seen or treated as experts in their field, even with years of experience and advanced degrees.
• There are few distinctions between master teachers and newer teachers, creating an inefficient use of time and expertise.
• Teachers feel that unrealistic responsibilities placed on them lowers their work quality and obligates them to take on roles for which they lack expertise.
• Teachers feel performance evaluations lack the nuance to properly reflect their craft excellence.
• Teachers rarely report leaving the profession due to school leadership; however, school leadership is a common reason to stay.
• Teachers feel that trust and understanding are fostered when district administration is present.
• Teachers express difficulty making ends meet. Salaries are perceived as stagnant, yet expectations increase yearly.

We visualized these insights through three current-state journey maps depicting a teaching career, a single school year, and a day-in-the-life. During a collaborative workshop, we ideated solutions to these experience gaps alongside the state's education stakeholders. We produced 20 solution concepts that fell into five categories:

• Career Development: Developing the teaching craft and the elevation of the teaching profession through meaningful career growth.
• Principal Development: Creating impactful tools and services for placing effective school leadership.
• Feedback: Elevating teacher voices and enhancing both top-down and bottom-up communication.
• Alternative School Systems: Reimagining traditional systems with an emphasis on the teacher's experience.
• Compensation: Ideating unique solutions to improve educator compensation.

Next, we designed a future-state ecosystem that reimagined a statewide education system where the concepts are fully implemented and a roadmap for how to get there.

Additionally, we built value cases for each concept using quantitative survey data to assess their ability to positively impact specific factors for teacher retention. As a starting point for transformation, we developed a comprehensive Change Package: a collection of repeatable best practices from 12 high-retention districts, including real examples from leaders for bringing each best practice to life.

Our solutions challenge the education system's traditional bureaucracy by taking a teacher-centered approach by bringing them to the decision-making table with the goal of making the state the #1 place for teachers to work.