Our Impact Goals for 2030
Our work from now until 2030 will be centered on these 4 impact goals. Over the next few years our work will go deeper into each of these areas.
Have questions? Reach out to us at stratplan@educator-academy.org
Impact Goal 1: Prepare New Teachers
We will continue to prepare new teachers for the classroom through our teacher residency and teacher fellows programs. As we look to prepare additional teachers, we are investigating additional program options to meet this goal. We know there are individuals who want to enter the teacher profession and need responsive avenues to meet certification requirements. We are committed to supporting non-traditional educators and offering multiple ways to pursue certification.
How you can help:
Do you know someone who would make a great teacher? Refer them to one of our teacher certification programs!
Impact Goal 2: Retain Teachers
The Educator Academy has and will continue to prioritize retaining teachers in the field of education. This has looked like providing coaching and professional development to teachers in our certification programs and teachers serving as a mentor teachers, along with providing National Board certification programming and teacher development at events like The Summit. We will continue to provide support in these avenues, as we know that teachers who feel supported in their development stay in the profession longer. Moving forward, we will expand our support beyond teachers in our certification programs to enhance teacher retention in the metro.
How you can help:
Is your school looking for teacher professional development? Reach out to us!
Impact Goal 3: Develop Instructional Leaders
The Educator Academy focuses on teachers as a means for impacting student learning. One new component of our 2030 intended impact goals is developing instructional leaders. By supporting those who support teachers in their instruction, the breadth of our impact will increase. This move is in alignment with our vision of every child having a highly effective classroom teacher. We will expand programmatic offerings to address instructional coach development and to provide leadership development for educators. Learn more about our educator development offerings.
How you can help:
If your school is looking for development for instructional leaders? Reach out to us!
Impact Goal 4: Maintain a Robust Organization
In order to continue to make an impact in our local education community, we must ensure that our organization is prepared to last. A few key moves we are focusing on in this next chapter of our strategic plan include: investing in staff, expanding our influence, building our brand, and growing our organizational accreditations beyond Missouri & AAQEP.
How you can help:
Donate one time or monthly to make a continual impact on the work we do.
2030 Theory of Change
The Educator Academy was founded with the vision of making an equitable education system a reality for all students. We focus on teachers because we know that of all school based factors, the quality of a teacher has the highest impact on student achievement. We prioritize teacher development to ensure students are receiving the best education possible.
During our first 9 years of existence, we focused primarily on pre-service teacher preparation. Missouri’s teacher shortage was labeled as a “crisis” by the state board in 2022, and the teacher shortage has not improved over recent years, with teacher retention continuing to decrease year over year. All of this data points to the urgent and important need to continue to prepare new teachers.
However, as we have been assessing the education landscape, the need for support in additional areas of the teacher pipeline become apparent. The community needs both new teachers in schools and to retain those already there. High teacher turnover has been related to lower educational outcomes for students. By prioritizing teacher retention, we continue to pursue our vision of all students having access to a high-quality education.
Knowing the impact of teachers on students, and the importance of teacher retention for student outcomes, we began looking at ways to enhance teacher retention. While we already provide teacher development for those enrolled in our in our programs, there are additional supports we could offer teachers outside of our certification programs.
Ultimately our vision is making an equitable education a reality for all students. In order to pursue that impact, we made the decision to develop teachers beyond those we have certified. While we have certified over 200 teachers over the last 9 years, the metro area employs nearly 20,000 teachers across public and charter schools. We have the skills, drive, and vision to impact a larger group of educators thereby expanding our impact on students.
Teacher preparation has and will remain a cornerstone of our organization. By addressing larger systemic needs for teachers support and development, we are helping address the conditions that support our residents, fellows, mentors, and peers to stay in the classroom long term.
Why create a strategic plan now?
Our mission and vision are deeply intertwined with our values which drive us to continuously innovate and improve our strategies, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of educators and students alike. Our strategic plan for 2030 outlines efforts we believe will fulfill our mission and bring our vision to life.
Time for Reflection
In 2019, The Educator Academy worked with Bellwether Education partners to set a strategic plan in place for our organization through 2024. During this period, we’ve made a significant impact in education and gained valuable insights into the ever-evolving teacher education space. Now that we have completed that strategic planning cycle, it’s time for us to look ahead to the next chapter for our organization.
More details are shared in our strategic plan booklet. Have questions about our strategic plan? Reach out to us at stratplan@educator-academy.org
An evolving Landscape
As our world continues to change at a rapid pace, so too does the landscape of education. While all sectors experienced massive changes during the pandemic, education has seen a massive reshuffling over the last 5 years. Long standing challenges in education bubbled to the surface during and after the pandemic. Teacher shortages worsened across the country with fewer teachers being prepared, and more teachers leaving the field.
The educational preparation and development environment is no longer defined by traditional parameters. While we have focused on teacher preparation and certification primarily through a teacher residency model, the need for teacher preparation and retention is expanding beyond what our certification programming can offer.
Shifts in workforce demands, and the increasing recognition of diverse learning styles require us to rethink and expand our approaches. Students today face challenges and opportunities that are vastly different from those of even a decade ago. To remain relevant and impactful, we must evolve our programs and services accordingly.
Learn about The Educator Academy’s Values
Our Approach to strategic planning
- Step 1: Gather input from stakeholders & experts
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After setting an intention to develop a new strategic plan that would guide us to 2030, we knew we needed input from stakeholders and experts in the field. Through surveys and focus groups, we gathered insight from stakeholders including: board of directors, staff, residents, fellows, graduates, alumni, mentor teachers, methods instructors, and building leaders. Our goal was to who understand the value we currently provide these groups and to identify areas where we could expand our valuable services.
Additionally, we interviewed fellow education organizations to learn about the landscape, the future, and their work. We are grateful to these groups for their collaboration including: Relay GSE, PEBC, rootED, NCTR, TNTP, and DESE. The learnings we gathered from these interviews informed our strategic plan.
- Step 2: Draft theory of change & intended impact
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After setting an intention to develop a new strategic plan that would guide us to 2030, we knew we needed input from stakeholders and experts in the field. Through surveys and focus groups, we gathered insight from stakeholders including: board of directors, staff, residents, fellows, graduates, alumni, mentor teachers, methods instructors, and building leaders. Our goal was to who understand the value we currently provide these groups and to identify areas where we could expand our valuable services.
Additionally, we interviewed fellow education organizations to learn about the landscape, the future, and their work. We are grateful to these groups for their collaboartion including: Relay GSE, PEBC, rootED, NCTR, TNTP, and DESE. The learnings we gathered from these interviews informed our strategic plan.
- Step 3: Set priorities & determine resources
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Next, it was time to set priorities. Using context gathered from stakeholders and experts, we then outlined the specific initiatives and measures of success for each impact goal. We gathered additional input from relevant stakeholders to ensure that the plans we set match the needs and desires of the community. We then allocated resources including personnel capacity and fiscal resources to the associated impact areas. This involved a reorganization of our teams and departments, and aligning our budget to those new impact goals.
- Step 4: Plan & begin implement
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Finally, it is time to begin the implementation process of our new strategy! This summer we kicked off our planning for the 2024-2025 programming year, using our new impact goals as a guide for our priorities. As you will see below, we are planning new developments for this year and the next 6 years to reach our intended impact goals.
Join us in ensuring every classroom is filled with a highly effective teacher. Whether you’re seeking teaching certification programs in Kansas City or donating to our organization, you can make a difference in the KC public education system.
For any questions or concerns, please call us at (816) 298-5660 or email us at stratplan@educator-academy.org
