A Team Model of Workforce Design

Mesa Public Schools’ diverse team teaching practices raise teachers’ job satisfaction while boosting academic support of students

Each morning 700 students hustle into their “family meetings” at Stevenson Elementary School in Mesa, Ariz., to express their learning intentions for the day. Teams of teachers, support staff and specialists work alongside the students to monitor academic progress and the wellness of the learning community.

Team teaching at Stevenson Elementary is one example of how we deliver on our promise to know our 57,000 students by name and to serve them by strength and by need so they graduate ready for college, career and community. To keep this promise, we are transforming how our students learn and how our teachers work.

Thirty years in education has taught me we do not suffer from a teacher shortage. Rather, we suffer from a workforce design problem. We must change the working conditions of teachers if we want to retain and attract teachers and improve student outcomes.

Teachers as Partners

As superintendent of Mesa Public Schools, I and the members of my leadership team made a bold decision in 2020 to break away from the archaic and broken one-teacher one-classroom model. No longer would we expect teachers to work in isolation solving the complex needs of students.

Knowing we needed help, I reached out to Carole Basile, dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Teacher College at Arizona State University. The university’s Next Education Workforce model emerged as a viable solution that continues to evolve as we study the needs of teachers and those they serve. (See right for resources on the Next Education Workforce model.)

To encourage teachers, I made their participation optional and set a goal that at least 50 percent of our 81 schools would have at least one team operating on their campus by the end of the 2023-24 school year. I am proud to share that we have accomplished this goal.

Today, our teaming models include teachers, paraprofessionals, specialists, industry partners and community volunteers as active members who support the social needs of students. Therapy dogs are part of the model. Our teams, by definition, consist of at least two teachers who co-design deeper and personalized learning experiences for a shared roster of students. Working in tandem and using their expertise, the team focuses on creating better learning experiences for students while enhancing their working environments.

Whirlwind of Change

Our first school to adopt a teaming model was Westwood High School in 2019. Its vision for freshmen was radically different from traditional high schools.

Today, four teachers make up the core team that teaches and supports 135 freshmen in flexible learning spaces. An Associated Press reporter characterized it as “organized chaos,” which captures the array of activities taking place simultaneously, from teacher-led instruction to small-group work to project-based learning. Students commented that they like having four teachers who know them well.

The makeover demanded changes in responsibilities, lesson design, school day schedules, common planning time and common teaching time to develop cross-curricular learning. But it is astonishing to see what committed educators have accomplished in three years. Today, 900 freshmen students are served by six academy teams of four teachers each.

Purpose-Driven Teams

Teaming looks different throughout the district, which intrigues visitors to our schools. Some teams are as small as two teachers, with others as large as a house of 600 students.

Some teams have counselors and special education teachers. Others invite community educators such as industry experts to support learning. A K-8 STEM school has aerospace industry experts who join teams throughout the year, while an elementary school sought high school tutors to assist with reading practice two to three times a week. Some of these aspiring educators have been hired as part-time paraprofessionals who join teams after their school day has ended.

I have given permission for our school teams to innovate and move at a pace that works best for their communities. Early adopters were excited to break out of the mold of the one-teacher, one-classroom model. As they come up against challenges, we brainstorm solutions and I reassure them that setbacks are part of progress. I pledge support through district resources and our partnership with Arizona State University.

Multigrade Structures

To strengthen relationships, Stevenson Elementary organizes classes into multigrades: one kindergarten house and six multigrade houses, two each serving grades 1–2, grades 3–4 and grades 5–6. Each house has a dedicated reading, writing, math and innovation teacher, one of whom serves as the team’s lead teacher. The innovation educator leads an inquiry-based class driven by social studies and science standards.

This multigrade model creates stability for students as their teachers monitor growth over a two-year period, reduces yearly transitions from teacher to teacher, deepens relationships with families and develops student leadership.

At Smith Junior High School, teaming has grown from one team supporting 100 7th graders to six teams supporting 900 students. Smith’s teaming journey was initiated by teachers who wanted to increase relevance through cross-curricular projects.

Typically, math and science teachers work with a combined total of 75 students across a two-hour block. English language arts and social studies teachers do the same. Students find comfort knowing they can reach out to any teacher for help. The social studies teacher can provide feedback on a writing assignment, and the math teacher can share another way of understanding a science concept.

Shared Responsibilities

Teacher satisfaction increases when teachers have adequate planning time, an unclouded vision for learning, daily access to expertise and administrators who embrace teacher agency. This is true for beginning and veteran teachers.

Beginning teachers who are on teams don’t navigate their new profession alone. They have daily support from their team leader and teammates. One of our junior high teams takes pride in developing relationships through parent communication. The team leader rehearses difficult conversations with caregivers and joins meetings and phone calls until the beginning teacher is comfortable and confident.

Lead teachers at Stevenson Elementary School not only teach students, but they also guide the team to plan how the members will share responsibility for all elements of instructional planning and delivery (e.g., lesson planning, instruction, data analysis) and work with specialists to design professional learning based on needs and interests of the team. This keeps teachers in the classroom while building leadership skills.

Lessons Learned

Our transformation to teaming has taught us we must bend and break the traditional systems and mindsets as we create instructional models that support personalized learning for all students. What worked for us was a long-term, dual focus on students and teachers. The following lessons served us well.

Create a new vision. Our vision creates pathways for lead teachers to teach students, support colleagues, analyze multiple data points to design instruction, lead the team to develop student-centered scheduling, serve on the school’s instructional leadership team, participate in hiring and ensure their teammates are mentored and coached daily.

Permit a model that can be adapted to different communities. We have learned that success starts small and usually starts with a team of courageous teachers and a visionary leader who wants to solve a complex problem (e.g., literacy skills, student engagement or teacher turnover). A significant strength of Mesa’s approach has been to allow teaming to look different in every school.

Retool existing tools and processes that do not support new models. What was designed for the one-teacher one-classroom model does not match the new models. Teachers usually receive one roster of students based on a class-size formula. Student information systems allow one teacher to view his or her students. Teachers are evaluated as individuals. Daily schedules are created based on time, not student need. Creating alternatives to these entrenched practices takes time.

Seek feedback and support. We have learned we are on the right path. Teachers on teams report high levels of job satisfaction, prompting experienced and novice teachers to work in teaming schools. Positive feedback from parents and students indicates students want to be known by strength and need, which is harder to do in traditional classrooms. This has accelerated the growth of teaming within and across schools.

Leaders benefit from support. Transformation from the status quo can be difficult and slow. I am fortunate to have a thought partner on my team who was willing to walk the first steps on the invisible bridge of leadership with me and who brings others along.

This year we have had a leadership coach dedicated to the expansion and support for teaming models. Because there is no one-size-fits-all model and many moving parts, I wish we would have provided this support sooner.

As we look ahead, we will refine our work to increase teacher retention and ensure our students graduate college, career and community ready.