Teacherpreneurs: Cultivating and Scaling Up a Bold Brand of Teacher Leadership

Abstract

The prospects for a high-quality public education system for all students hinge on expanded roles for teachers. In particular, districts and states must create hybrid positions for teacherpreneurs: classroom experts who teach students regularly but also have time, space, and reward to spread their ideas and practices to colleagues as well as administrators, policy makers, parents, and community leaders. Berry identifies several research-grounded reasons to invest in a bold brand of teacher leadership, including its impact on student achievement and the capacity to serve increasingly diverse populations as well as teachers’ self-professed interest in hybrid roles. Many teachers—perhaps more than a million, Berry argues—could lead as teacherpreneurs if they had appropriate preparation, support, and work structures. Berry outlines three high-leverage strategies for scaling up teacherpreneurism: elevating and publicizing the role of teacher leaders, redesigning teacher evaluation and pay systems, and formally preparing and socializing new teachers as teacherpreneurs.