Teacher Table Talks

The Arizona Teacher Table brings together teachers, educators, and practitioners from across P-20 to meaningfully address recruitment and retention challenges, continuing the work to elevate the teaching profession and ensure we attract and keep excellent teachers in Arizona. We have hosted three previous Teacher Table Talks with support from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), two in-person pre-COVID-19, and one virtually.

 

We are excited to host a new series of these virtual events to continue our goal of elevating educator voices from around our state.  We will be hosting events beginning in March 2021 by geographic region, as well as content area. If you are interested in attending, or if you would like to host a Teacher Table Talk in your area, please contact us at [email protected] to sign up. 

 

Background

The Arizona Teacher Table is part of a national initiative. In January 2018, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the College Football Playoff Foundation (CFPF) convened education leaders from across the country to help build a coalition that will aim to simultaneously and dramatically change how teachers are seen and what teachers do. This new coalition recognizes that current efforts to improve recruitment and retention have not yielded the dramatic results that students and teachers deserve; in part, this is because they have not consistently included teachers and local leaders, and have lacked a comprehensive, thoughtful, data-driven approach to solving these problems.  

 

Teacher Table Objectives

Arizona’s State Teacher Table convening will be charged with:  

  1. Reflecting on Arizona’s teacher workforce data analysis to inform action plans to include specific inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes to address challenges in recruitment and retention;  
  2.  Establishing processes, roles, and responsibilities to execute on these action plans, including communicating with and engaging stakeholders to build momentum, inform implementation, and garner public and political will to support policy and practice change; and  
  3. Participating in national efforts, by regularly reporting implementation and impact data findings, as well as successful interventions, advocacy, and communication strategies, and  
  4. Engaging in work with peer states and national partners, which will support states’ work by providing technical assistance, financial support, and expertise.