Learning and Leading for an Evolving Profession: Rethinking the New Teacher Support System in Mapleton Public Schools

Abstract

Mapleton Public Schools serves 7,100 students on the northern edge of Denver. In terms of student demographics, Mapleton is similar to many urban districts in Colorado, with 66% of students eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch and 79% of students identifying as Hispanic (Colorado Department of Education, 2023). Like many districts across the nation, the COVID-19 pandemic strained Mapleton’s capacity to retain and support teachers, with the teacher turnover rate spiking to 26% last year (Colorado Department of Education, 2022). My residency in Mapelton began by overseeing components of a mentoring grant and I soon recognized the need for a comprehensive approach to new teacher support. This capstone will describe how I designed and facilitated a district working group intended to develop and sustain a new teacher support system in service of equitable student outcomes. In designing and preparing for the working group, I drew on several bodies of knowledge including distributed leadership, adaptive leadership, learning organizations and adult learning theory. When planning specific facilitation moves and learning activities, I utilized my training and experiences with the Data Wise improvement process (Boudett, City & Murnane, 2013). I will explain how nuanced leadership (Fullan, 2019), served to integrate all of these concepts and guide my analysis. Finally, I used Kotter’s eight-step model for organizational transformation to map the arc of work for the working group (1995). I discuss the implications of this capstone in the areas of new teacher support, career-long professional learning, and education leadership. The tasks that confront educators and leaders are increasingly complex, yet teacher preparation and professional learning systems are often incoherent, rigid and insufficient for critical adult learning tasks. This capstone presents a case for differentiated and collaborative adult learning systems developed through interaction with educators. My analysis of the working group through the lens of nuanced leadership may be instructive for leaders seeking to build a responsive, sustainable, learning-focused initiative. Finally, I discuss emerging models for shifting roles and resources, as well as my recommendations for applying these models in Mapleton, which may offer a potential path forward for districts with similar goals.