We help schools to improve their teacher retention with our evidence based teacher retention model without spending $10,000’s

Our Clients

Why most schools struggle with teacher retention

Most schools think that the retention of teachers is only impacted by external factors. We often hear schools asking for external parties to step in to increase their pay or change their responsibilities instead of focusing on what the school can do to retain their teachers.

Why Brass Tacks clients are able to retain their teachers

The first step we help our clients to take is taking ownership over their teacher retention problem. You see what we have realized through research is that most schools have an unintentional turnover system meaning they are struggling with teacher retention, but they don’t know why.

Our aim is to help you build an intentional retention system using our evidence based model & strategies. We will help you to intentionally retain your teachers. And we will touch on the exact system below.

Pain Points We Fix

  • Teachers leave when they feel unsupported. It’s not the money, it’s the culture. We can help pinpoint exactly which changes are most likely to yield the biggest benefits to your team.

  • Sucking it up isn’t a strategy, it’s a coping mechanism. We use a proprietary diagnostic to assess which demands weigh heaviest on your staff so that we can collaborate on finding more balance to drive better outcomes.

Outcomes You Can Expect

  • Balancing job demands and resources will directly impact staff stress and burnout. Let us help you get started with our systematic approach to addressing this enormous problem. We will partner with you to identify and address the root causes impeding teacher retention in your school.

  • As you apply our retention framework to your culture, not only will staff see welcome changes in their work environment, but you’ll experience a greater sense of job satisfaction as you tailor your efforts to better align to what teachers need in order to stay in their jobs long term.

  • Beyond our initial assessment of your school’s specific job demands and resources situation, you’ll gain knowledge and tools to help you measure and respond to increasing the balance between the demands you place on staff and the resources you provide to meet those demands. We'll help you learn about to adapt to uncertainty and create more innovative thinking and problem solving among your team.

Our Evidence Based Teacher Retention Model

To develop an intentional teacher retention system, you need three key elements:

01

A Clear Model for Understanding Teacher Well-Being

Our model focuses on three key areas: demands on teachers, resources they have to manage those demands, and the social-emotional skills they need to navigate their work and feel supported.

02

Tools to Collect Useful Data

To improve teacher retention, you need data. Simple tools can help you gather information on stress and energy levels (leading indicators) and track how demands, resources, and social-emotional skills affect your teachers (lagging indicators). The data will show you where problems are and where to intervene.

03

You don’t need to completely overhaul everything. Instead, start with small, manageable changes that shift your school’s system in the right direction using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. Over time, you can learn what works best to improve teacher well-being and adjust your approach accordingly.

Processes for Small-Scale Changes

To engage these three elements, here is how we work with you:

Step 1

Cost Analysis

We work with you to analyze what your teacher retention is costing you.

Step 2

Needs Assessment

We help you analyze the level of demands, resources and adult social-emotional support in your school based on our research-based Teacher Retention Model and use this data with you to see what is causing your teachers' turnover.

Step 3

Co-design

We work with you to design the best strategies (decrease demands, increase resources, develop adult social-emotional skills) needed in your context to increase teacher retention based on the Teacher Retention Model.

Step 4

Ongoing Evaluation

We help embed ongoing data collection to help you see if your chosen strategies are work to increase teacher well-being and intent to stay in your school.

Who is this for?

  • School leaders who are tired of losing their best teachers and who want to create a more intentional retention system

Testimonials

  • Bailey and Weiner have gifted educators with a multi-tool guide in The Daily SEL Leader. . . inserting SEL inputs within a continuous improvement cycle and a step-by-step instructional manual on exactly how to integrate social emotional learning competencies into everyday spaces.

    Sara M. Burd

    RDT Director of Social Emotional Learning and Counseling, Arlington Public Schools- Arlington, MA Council of Distinguished Educators, National Commission on Social Emotional and Academic Development

  • The Daily SEL Leader is a comprehensive and practical resource that will guide educational leaders to understand, practice and model SEL skills. This book is written for educators, by educators. It is insightful, functional and will foster impactful leadership.

    Michelle L. Trujillo

    Author, Start with the Heart: Igniting Hope in Schools through Social and Emotional Learning

  • Wise leaders know that we are truly only in charge of our own selves, and that we can achieve tremendous personal growth by fine-tuning our social and emotional skills. Bailey and Weiner’s Daily SEL Leader shows the way.

    Julie Lythcott-Haims

    New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult and Real American

  • As a busy school principal, I love the accessibility of The Daily SEL Leader. Written in short, easy to digest modules, this book gives me a daily burst of inspiration, grounding me in the core SEL skills that I seek to deepen in my leadership.

    Lillian Hsu

    Principal of Latitude 37.8, an XQ Super School, Former Principal of High Tech High, Chula Vista, Oakland, CA

Meet James and Randy

 

Dr. James Bailey

As a curious investigator of understanding people, how they develop, learn, grow, and find purpose in their life, James is constantly asking, “What is my job on this planet? What is it that needs doing, that I know something about, that probably won’t happen unless I take responsibility for it?” This pursuit of purpose led James into many roles in K-12 and higher education including teacher, principal, school turnaround leader, consultant to principals, superintendent, and core faculty roles where he focused on reforming schools to make them work better for all students. All of these endeavors included addressing personalized learning and social-emotional development. His latest “job that needs to be done” appeared when he realized leading well can only be done by becoming more aware of yourself. Today, James is deeply engaged in finding ways to support school and district leaders with their own SEL through such efforts as his latest book The Daily SEL Leader: A Guided Journal. When he’s not busily researching or working with others, James is chasing his four dogs, watching the Red Sox, or cooking for his wife at home.

 

Randy Weiner

An avid explorer, Randy constantly asks himself and others “Why?” He loves challenging his own assumptions, turning ideas on their head and seeking innovations that actually align to the real world in which educators live. Examples of the fruit of this labor include co-founding Urban Montessori Charter School, Oakland, CA’s only public Montessori school, co-founding BrainQuake, a middle school math technology company and three-time U.S. Department of Education Small Business Innovation Research Award winner, and his first book, “The Daily SEL Leader: A Guided Journal”. When Randy isn’t collaborating with educators around the world, he’s likely sharing taxi service for his two daughters with his wife or honing his photography skills at home or abroad.

Frequently asked questions

  • To date, most attempts to solve the teacher attrition issue focus on economic incentives. However, given the prevalence of stress and burnout, leaders need a different perspective, focusing on educators’ health, well-being and flourishing, and the health of their schools. While policy may work to increase incentives for teachers, we submit leaders have much more control over impacting the social determinants of well-being and flourishing known to increase teacher retention. According to Sartain & Estrera (2023), “teachers’ perceptions of the quality of their school leadership and the level of support they receive from their principals are associated with reductions in both intended teacher turnover and actual teacher turnover”.

  • The TRM synthesizes concepts from the Job-Demands and Resources model (Bakker & Derouti, 2007, 2016; McCarthy, et al., 2016; Granziera, et al., 2022) and Leithwood’s Emotional Path concept (Leithwood, et al., 2017). The TRM helps educational leaders understand the necessary balance needed between demands and resources that can enhance educator well-being and flourishing and the role of adult social-emotional learning as a critical resource in pursuing that balance.

  • We understand how scarce your time is. We value consistent, quality engagement over quantity. To that end, although we regularly customize our offerings for our clients, typically we would expect at least one 60-meeting per month, with likely at least one additional 30-minute meeting per month for the key leader or leaders. We offer a number of different solutions (see below) and the time commitment can vary depending upon your need an dhow we co-design the teacher-retention strategy together.

  • We find that a relatively small team of no more than eight people is ideal for the initial TRM implementation. The group might consist of leadership and key teacher leaders.

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