Key Findings

Reimagining Educator Roles

What we learned about how schools redesign educator roles & student learning

Key Finding #1: Affirmation of Existing Frameworks

The eleven schools we studied use many of the same design choices for reimagining educator roles identified by earlier frameworks.

Key Finding #2: Seven Indicators of Effectiveness

We identified seven common indicators that reflect how effectively schools implement these design choices (i.e., implementing with demonstrable impact on educators and young people).

Key Finding #3: Five Emergent Model Types

We surfaced five emerging model types with strong potential to transform teaching and learning.

Key Finding #1: Affirmation of Existing Frameworks

The eleven schools we studied use many of the same design choices for reimagining educator roles identified by earlier frameworks.

Key Finding #2: Seven Indicators of Effectiveness

We identified seven common indicators that reflect how effectively schools implement these design choices (i.e., implementing with demonstrable impact on educators and young people).

Key Finding #3: Five Emergent Model Types

We surfaced five emerging model types with strong potential to transform teaching and learning.

Key Finding #1

Affirmation of Existing Frameworks

The eleven schools we studied use many of the same design choices for reimagining educator roles identified by earlier frameworks.

Notable examples include:

EdFirst’s Strategic Schools Staffing Landscape Scan
ERS’ A Vision for a Reimagined Teaching Job
Transcend’s Transforming the Teacher Role

Key Finding #2

Seven Indicators of Effectiveness

We identified seven common indicators that reflect how effectively schools implement these design choices (i.e., implementing with demonstrable impact on educators and young people).

Indicators of Effective Implementation

Simultaneous Design: Effective schools design for students and educators in tandem, aligning experiences and outcomes across both.

Coherence: Effective schools start with a clear instructional vision and make aligned choices about curriculum, scheduling, educator pipelines and training, and more.

Co-Design: Effective schools sustain impact by engaging teachers in continuous co-design—not through one-off input or top-down decisions.

Trade-off Management: Effective schools make intentional trade-offs to improve educator experiences, balancing competing priorities.

Role Clarity: Effective schools clarify the educator experience they’ve designed—along with trade-offs—to attract and retain mission-aligned staff.

Homegrown Talent: Effective schools build their own talent and leadership pipelines when traditional preparation falls short of their model’s needs.

Adoptable Models: Effective schools build their own talent and leadership pipelines when traditional preparation falls short of their model’s needs.

Key Finding #3

Five Emergent Model Types

We surfaced five emerging model types with strong potential to transform teaching and learning.

The emergent models we identified represent clusters of mutually-reinforcing design choices we see schools make to redesign teaching and learning. They feature the following transformations to adult roles. Click in to see the coherent design choices across other school elements.