Jacksonville, FL., April 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pace Center for Girls (Pace), a nationally recognized model that provides education, counseling, training and advocacy for girls and young women, released a study, "Helping Teachers Succeed: A Framework Rooted in Building School Belonging for Teachers of Students with High-Risk Factors,” which finds building school belonging can be an antidote to the teacher shortage. Developed in partnership with MilwayPLUS social impact advisors, education experts, and peer organizations, the comprehensive study emphasizes the critical importance to teacher retention of fostering a sense of school belonging, particularly for teachers working with students with high-risk factors.

"At Pace, we have evidence via our annual girls feedback survey that girls’ success highly correlates with a consistent, caring adult relationship, and that a teacher’s satisfaction depends on relationships not only with our girls but with other team members, leaders, and a supportive community," says Mary Marx, CEO and President of Pace Center for Girls.

The white paper delves into its core finding that the much-studied outcomes that teachers want for their students are the same ones that they want for themselves: competence, autonomy, purpose, and belonging. Among these, the research found that belonging, in school and community, is the most critical to fostering teachers' retention and satisfaction. With the national teacher shortage accelerating since the pandemic’s onset, effective support systems to achieve these outcomes for teachers are fundamental to bridge the gap and improve outcomes for students.

The study also details how the first three outcomes for teachers bolster the fourth. As Professor Marcia Lyles from Columbia University Teachers College asserts, "Belonging doesn’t come out of nowhere. Building teachers’ competence, autonomy, and shared purpose within a school community fosters a sense of belonging."

Case studies highlighted in the paper include strong practices of school and teacher support organizations including Pace Center for Girls, Youth Villages residential schools, AMIkids, KIPP Schools, Hull Services/William Roper Hull School, City Year of Greater Boston, EL Education, Communities in Schools, West London Zone. Insights also come from teacher training organizations at Columbia University, Miami-Dade College, University of Florida, Simon Fraser University. These institutions offer ways to strengthen weaker links in teacher supports, including collaborative professional development and lesson planning, trauma-informed classroom management, well-being supports and professional learning communities in schools and across a community.

Solutions proposed in the paper include creating learning communities within and beyond schools, prioritizing mental health supports for teachers, and accessing culture-building capacity through partnerships with nonprofit organizations like EL Education, City Year, and Communities in Schools to build mutual support and accountability among teachers and students.

The study also offers a blueprint for change that Pace developed out of the research and is applying to build teacher competence, autonomy, purpose and belonging, with early indicators of increased teacher retention.

For more information and to access the full white paper, please visit here.

To register for the webinar that will delve into the paper's findings, visit here. 

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About Pace Center for Girls

Founded in 1985, Pace provides free year-round middle and high school academics, case management, counseling, and life skills development in a safe and supportive environment that recognizes and deals with past trauma and builds upon girls’ individual strengths. Dedicated to meeting the social, emotional, and education needs of girls, Pace has a successful and proven program model that has changed the life trajectory of more than 40,000 girls and is recognized as one of the nation’s leading advocates for girls in need. For more information on Pace Center for Girls, visit www.pacecenter.org.

About MilwayPLUS social impact advisors

Milway Consulting collaborates with and advises philanthropy and nonprofits with a focus on research, publishing and content strategies for funders, and innovation and growth strategies for content creators. Katie Smith Milway, principal of Milway Consulting and a senior advisor at The Bridgespan Group, has a background in journalism, nonprofit management, strategy consulting, and governance. Her work in sustainable development across four continents includes program design and measurement, donor development and communications, and organizational development.

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• Helping Teachers Succeed: A Framework Rooted in Building School Belonging