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Abstract

Workplace promotions can bring increased prestige, responsibility, and rewards. However, in PK-22 education, the typical promotion opportunities for educators require a significant career change into teacher leadership or principal leadership with the assumption of management roles requiring different skills and personal characteristics than student-facing educator roles. One career pathway model—individual contributors—could motivate educators to remain in the classroom while nevertheless earning promotions with social recognition and pay increases. Using Illinois as a policy implementation site, this article will illustrate why educator career pathways focusing only on leadership and management roles fail to influence more educators to remain in the classroom.

Keywords

individual contributors teacher leadership educator career pathways educator retention education labor markets education policy

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Beyond Teacher Leadership: Retaining Educators With Individual Contributor Career Pathways

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