Applying a Talent Analytics Approach to “Grow Your Own” Educator Initiatives in Rural School Districts

Our recently completed research project investigated strategies being used by Wisconsin rural school districts to address educator shortages, including a diverse set of “grow your own” (GYO) initiatives such as Educators Rising that involve partnerships with educator preparation programs (EPPs) and other local partners to identify, recruit, and prepare local candidates to become educators. We believe this study has much to offer in considering how GYO efforts can help improve talent analytics (also known as human capital management) practices at the local level in K–12 education—particularly in rural districts, which comprise a large share of the districts in Wisconsin and many other states but have faced persistent challenges attracting and retaining educators. Our mixed methods research design utilized two statewide surveys (of rural superintendents and local Educators Rising site coordinators), along with site visits to five rural districts, to accomplish two goals: first, to identify strategies being used by rural Wisconsin districts to attract, recruit, and hire teachers, and second, to describe the landscape of GYO initiatives that rural districts are using to address educator shortages. Broadly speaking, we find that rural districts are not waiting on state or federal policymakers to solve long-standing staffing challenges for them but instead are actively engaged in implementing a mix of national GYO programs such as Educators Rising and “homegrown” GYO initiatives as one solution to chronic educator shortages and diversification issues.