The Strategic School Staffing Summit is hosted by the Next Education Workforce™ initiative at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.  This annual convening - now in its sixth year - celebrates innovative and practical approaches to strategic school staffing with an emphasis on ideas, strategies, practices and conditions that enable a more diverse, team-based education workforce.

What to expect

The Strategic School Staffing Summit (formerly the Next Education Workforce Summit) features presentations and panels from leaders in the field, educators, researchers, school and system leaders, policymakers and funders. The two-day event is attended by hundreds of stakeholders from across the education ecosystem interested in elements of strategic school staffing, including:

Teams of educators with distributed expertise: We believe deeply in the power of team-based school staffing models as catalysts for fundamentally changing the role of educators and the student learning experience. Teams often also include student teachers, paraprofessionals in specialized roles and community educators — all of whom help better answer the question: “Who do our students need to thrive?”

Team-enabled deeper and personalized learning: How can we build or support team-based staffing models that enable deeper and personalized learning experiences for all students? 

Differentiated roles: How are schools formally identifying and leveraging new and/or differentiated roles for educators and leaders that create a more diverse and flexible workforce and enable learning that is deeper, personalized and leads to more equitable outcomes for all students?

Entry, preparation and advancement pathways: How can we develop clear pathways into teaching to ensure the educator workforce is more diverse and accessible and better represents our student populations? 

Technology: How are AI technologies shifting teacher workload and use of time? In what ways is AI enabling educators to personalize instruction more effectively for individual students' needs? 

Research & policy: What is the research and policy — federally, nationally or locally — that supports strategic school staffing? 

Who it’s for

The Strategic School Staffing Summit is for anyone interested in thinking differently about our educator workforce and how we staff schools. Join educators, researchers, school and system leaders, policymakers, funders, edtech professionals and others who are helping build a more diverse, team-based education workforce that delivers on the promise of deeper and personalized learning for all students.