Abstract
Empirical evidence has repeatedly shown a positive association between students’ academic achievement and teacher experience (Kini & Podolsky, 2016; Cardichon et al., 2020) or teacher preparation (Podolsky et al., 2019; Cardichon et al., 2020). However, year after year, students from low-income and minoritized communities are perpetually assigned to the least experienced and least qualified teachers (Scholes et al., 2017). Too few studies have focused on novice and underprepared teachers’ lived experiences in high-needs schools and even fewer studies have compared these experiences with school leadership perspectives. Through 21 semi-structured interviews, this qualitative, phenomenological study invited first and second-year teachers in high-needs schools of a Northern California district to share their experiences and critically examine the systems in place that help or undermine their ability to serve marginalized students. In addition to the new teachers’ interviews, this study included 11 structured interviews of school administrators to explore potential misalignment between what teachers list as main challenges and the solutions attempted so far at the leadership level. The findings derived from triangulating both sets of data indicate that alternatively certified teachers, and especially teachers of color, reject the traditional credentialing pathways because of financial and logistical constraints. The least prepared teachers suggest paid, job-embedded student teaching or co-teaching would have better prepared them whereas all teachers advocate for cohort-based support systems, clear expectations, and release time to collaboratively plan. The findings also showed a misalignment between school leader and teacher perceptions about the adequacy of school-level support systems and about the hierarchy of needs that new teachers might have depending on their preparation pathway. Moreover, the study revealed that while school leaders focus on district-level hiring and recruitment practices that place inexperienced teachers in high-needs schools, novice teachers almost unanimously expressed their desire to stay in Title I schools emphasizing the need for more in-classroom and school-level supports to meet their students’ social-emotional, cultural, and linguistic needs. Recommendations for policy and practice center on modifications in teacher preparation pathways to meet new teachers’ practical needs, improved hiring practices to actively recruit BIPOC teachers, and intensified support systems to meet the complex needs of both, novice teachers and their marginalized students.