Focusing on People: How Coherent Development Practices Can Improve Teacher Retention at DSST Public Schools

In the current education reform climate, retaining high-quality teachers is a critical aspect of maintaining successful school systems. Charter schools in particular tend to employ a human capital model that recruits young and energetic teachers, but they also seem to experience high teacher turnover. However, all school systems are grappling with the urgent need to retain teachers over the long term. This capstone explores the role of “people development” in service of teacher retention at DSST Public Schools, a high-performing charter network of ten schools in Denver, Colorado. I describe my role leading two major components of work in service of greater teacher retention: (1) developing school leaders to know their teachers deeply by tailoring their coaching and development approaches and (2) building on existing central office structures and systems to prioritize retention and development topics centrally. Through this process, I found that DSST had many best practices spread across many departments in service of developing and retaining teachers. Using a change management framework, I argue that collective ownership of retention is positive, but it must be tethered to a strategy that aligns the competencies of the adults, the conditions for implementation, the culture of the organization, and the broader organizational context. A human capital management strategy can create coherence among these components, the organization, and its people. In the absence of a clear strategy and priorities, DSST may find misalignment between many initiatives that are in service of retention and development. This approach helps to cohere a “suite” of best practices for optimal human capital management and retention of teachers. This capstone offers several insights for practitioners seeking to prioritize human capital and teacher retention efforts, such as aligning human capital goals to the strategic planning process, creating ownership of retention processes across the organization by tying it to principal and central office leader evaluations, and aligning a human capital strategy to the organization’s broader education or improvement strategy.