Innovative Staffing Supports Teachers Across Arizona

NIET works with school districts and educator preparation programs across the state of Arizona, improving the skills of both veteran and aspiring teachers to support student learning. Partnerships with Arizona State University (ASU) and Northern Arizona University strengthen educator preparation coursework and clinical experiences using the NIET Aspiring Teacher Rubric.

NIET is also strengthening the bridge from preparation to the classroom through new teacher induction and mentoring. This support has a measurable impact on teacher retention while helping new teachers to be more effective earlier in their careers. In addition, NIET is working with ASU’s Next Education Workforce initiative to develop flexible staffing models and create new pathways to the classroom. NIET is helping to create an instrument that allows teams of educators to discern which elements of Next Education models they are implementing well and to identify areas of improvement and growth.  

High-need schools and districts are increasing student success and closing gaps 

NIET supports districts across the state to strengthen the teacher and leader pipeline, improve classroom instruction, and raise student achievement. The results of this investment over a decade can be seen in the success achieved by individual schools and districtwide. Avondale Elementary School District, located outside of Phoenix, raised student learning results and outpaced the state.

This year, Avondale’s Desert Thunder School earned national recognition and was featured on PBS’s Arizona Horizon program. Phoenix’s Roosevelt Elementary School District is partnering with NIET to support 15 designated Targeted School Improvement schools via a grant from the Arizona Department of Education. NIET provides principal coaching and teacher leader support, supports the district Teaching and Learning Department with the Roosevelt Instructional Model, and is helping transform professional learning communities into data-driven decision-making hubs based on the individual needs of teachers and students.

NIET has also supported significant academic achievement in Gadsden Elementary School District #32, located near the U.S./Mexico border in San Luis. Gadsden partners with NIET to support school and teacher leaders to set goals, design learning to meet these goals, adjust based on student learning needs, and continue to improve instruction in every classroom. NIET supports school leaders to lead this work while developing their own instructional leadership skills. This structure expands the amount of instructional leadership capacity in each building and creates a system for continuous improvement of classroom teaching and learning.

About the 2023 NIET Annual Report

The 2023 NIET Annual Report highlights key milestones and achievements over the past year as we have supported partners around the country in building the capacity of educators and unleashing the power of teacher leadership. Read about NIET’s partnerships across the country and how these partnerships are leading to significant impacts on student achievement in the full report here.