Three of the 14 catalysts are related to teacher work environments, which far overrepresents this issue’s appearance in the map at large:

• Relevant professional growth during the school day
• Opportunities for teacher collaboration during the school day
• School leader responsibility for creating positive work environments

In 2018, based on this outsized influence, as well as partner interest, we decided to support network action on these four catalysts. 

Working together with over 20 partners, we spent the summer of 2018 “getting smart” on this focus area, resulting in our report “Teachers at Work: Designing Schools Where Teachers and Students Thrive”. We launched the report with an event where partners and other stakeholders could dig into the research, and from the event, four Project Teams emerged to take on various challenges together. 

In 2021, we released an update to our research in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed calls for racial justice. The report, called “Teaching During the Great (un)Equalizer Rebuilding Teacher Work Environments with Equity at the Center,” uses the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to highlight changes that will improve teacher work environments regardless of the external context.

Since 2018, 73 partners have worked collaboratively across 16 Project Teams, developing solutions to enable strong, teacher-driven relationships between schools and professional learning providers, measure positive work environments in schools, and embed professional development in rural schools.  

Over the course of three years, 69% of 100Kin10 partners shared that they increased their focus on nurturing positive work environments for teachers.

Special thanks to the Project Management Institute Educational Foundation for their generous support of our work in this focus area!