Where Teachers Thrive: Organizing Schools for Success by Susan Moore Johnson (Harvard Education Press, 2019)
Susan Moore Johnson, cofounder of Harvard's Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, has long researched the realities new teachers face and how conditions within a school affect teacher retention—for better or worse. This book draws from studies of selected schools that Johnson has conducted since 2008. Her team interviewed many teachers to understand how specific conditions and systems within their schools shaped their work lives and effectiveness.
Among other highlights, Johnson provides case studies revealing how six high-achieving low-income schools use various practices for hiring, evaluating, supporting, and retaining teachers. Each chapter shows how the schools addressed a different challenge of providing a supportive school-work environment—including in areas like hiring, curriculum, supporting teacher teams, and evaluation. For example, she shows how one middle-elementary school gave teachers greater flexibility to create their own thematic units to help students meet new standards. By the same token, Johnson also highlights practices that lifted test scores, but didn't let new teachers flourish. Some schools, for instance, used "late, rushed, and information-poor" processes to hire new educators, which didn't get these novices off to a good start.
Johnson provides some history behind challenges like providing teachers a solid curriculum and direction on what to teach. She describes, for example, how in the early-2000s, the move toward standards was often not accompanied by guidance, model lessons, or even recommended textbooks, leaving many teachers, as one remarked, "lost at sea."
Not all teachers whose perspectives are explored in this substantial book were novices. But what's revealed about healthy practices for encouraging leadership, providing supports, and scheduling teachers' time, has definite relevance for schools looking to better support new teachers.
