69传媒

Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

5 Ways School Leaders Can Make Teachers Feel More Valued

How to make teacher appreciation last all year
By Sharif El-Mekki 鈥 June 20, 2023 4 min read
Photo illustration of a calendar with pins that have feedback icons on them.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Teacher Appreciation Week came and went last month with some nice social media content, sentimental reflections on the value of educators, and probably a pizza party or two in schools across the country.

But what if we made Teacher Appreciation Week last all year?

What if we created the conditions to ensure that teaching was the kind of job, day in and day out, where people felt valued, respected, heard, seen, supported, and consistently appreciated and understood?

About This Series

In this biweekly column, principals and other authorities on school leadership鈥攊ncluding researchers, education professors, district administrators, and assistant principals鈥攐ffer timely and timeless advice for their peers.

To do that, we鈥檒l have to move away from pizza parties and lean into school and district policies to facilitate teacher satisfaction and growth in all our education systems and practices.

School leaders can and must play a major role in making that happen. Here鈥檚 how:

1. Create real feedback loops. School leaders need to encourage and enable teachers to share how they experience the school, its culture, and its leadership.

Throughout my career, teachers, especially those I鈥檝e hired, have shared with me that many schools they have worked in did not have leadership that facilitated and encouraged . Too often then, an 鈥渦s鈥 versus 鈥渢hem鈥 mindset and culture dominated鈥攚here leaders and staff were on opposite sides of a divide rather than part of one whole.

Leaders who make time for feedback, create mechanisms within the school organization for it to take place, and demonstrate their commitment to really hearing teachers by following through on matters raised have a powerful advantage in driving improvement. But it takes more than a 鈥渃omments box鈥 in the main office, once-a-year anonymous surveys (where answers and suggestions disappear into the air), or a monthly staff meeting where the principal takes a few softball questions. It has to be ingrained in the very way that leaders do their jobs.

2. Get out of the office and into classrooms. Leaders need to meet teachers where they are and then take action informed by the views shared by staff. Most educators don鈥檛 expect that everything they discuss with a leader will lead to a reversal of policy or a sea change in practice. But teachers certainly do know the difference between someone who will really consider their perspective and someone who is just giving lip service to concerns and suggestions. So, approach this work with earnest authenticity, a sense of openness, and a humble willingness. Have a bias toward listening, thoughtful deliberations, and deliberate actions.

3. Be the lead learner in the school. This is a critical role for school leaders to inhabit not just for staff satisfaction but for the school improvement that can flow from it. Effective leadership-feedback loops can only be led by someone who sees themselves as a learner. Otherwise, the communication flow is meaningless. Principals who engage in this practice are able to answer a simple but powerful question: What have you learned from your staff in the past week?

How many of us can consistently answer that critical question?

4. Prioritize productive feedback for the whole leadership team. 69传媒 have many different leaders, both formal and informal, and the posture and habits of a principal can be a powerful determinant of how that leadership distribution looks and functions. Creating effective forms of sharing and understanding how school leadership is experienced provide meaningful modeling opportunities that can inform the current and future practice of school staff themselves. Doing so will ensure that other leaders in the building similarly embrace feedback and develop in productive ways. With that, more effective forms of distributed leadership can flourish.

5. Recognize that feedback is a product of diverse lived experiences. The effective leader is one who demonstrates understanding by valuing the voices, perspectives, and experiences of all their staff. For example, if an informal survey finds that 99 out of 100 school staffers like a certain policy but that one person who isn鈥檛 fond of the policy is the , you should probably give some additional consideration to the issue. Majority might rule, but it doesn鈥檛 always mean equity and justice.

School leaders also need to embrace difference and diversity in ways that amount to more than just providing 鈥渁ffinity spaces鈥欌 but never hearing what comes out of them. When they don鈥檛 productively engage with the perspectives of educators and staff from diverse backgrounds, leaders send those educators a powerful and perilous signal: Your perspective is not valued or wanted. People are like your conscience: If you ignore them long enough, they leave. In an era of growing teacher shortages, it鈥檚 the rare school leader that can maintain an organization while sending these kinds of signals.

The effects are like ripples in a pond; they spread and spread. Effective school leadership extends well beyond one school where it takes place. It influences policy and practice in other places over time as staff go into different roles and different schools.

Creating real feedback loops requires courage, openness, and humility. The work is worth it, not because of some principal of the year award or our official Teacher Appreciation Week, but because they deliver better student outcomes that flow from more stable, invested, empowered, and, yes, appreciated staff.

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69传媒
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

School & District Management Reports Strategic Resourcing for K-12 Education: A Work in Progress
This report highlights key findings from surveys of K-12 administrators and product/service providers to shed light on the alignment of purchasing with instructional goals.
School & District Management Download Shhhh!!! It's Underground Spirit Week, Don't Tell the 69传媒
Try this fun twist on the Spirit Week tradition.
Illustration of shushing emoji.
iStock/Getty
School & District Management Opinion How My Experience With Linda McMahon Can Help You Navigate the Trump Ed. Agenda
I have a lesson for district leaders from my (limited) interactions with Trump鈥檚 pick for ed. secretary, writes a former superintendent.
Joshua P. Starr
4 min read
Vector illustration of people walking on upward arrows, symbolizing growth, progress, and teamwork towards success.
iStock/Getty Images
School & District Management Opinion Let Them Eat Books: A Modest Proposal to Fix American Education
We certainly can鈥檛 risk letting students read their textbooks. Who knows what questionable ideas they might find?
5 min read
Pile of books on a dinner plate. Satire.
iStock/Getty Images