We hope school leaders, district leaders, policymakers — and everyone else — will study the principles in this vision. There is no one person or institution that can make it all happen effectively, so it will take a concerted effort by nearly everyone who has a role in leading our school systems as well as broad public support.

There is also more work that can be done. Including the following:

  • A statistical supply curve analysis could create a more precise estimate of how many more people would be attracted into or retained in the profession with any given salary level. This kind of study could specifically consider what it would take to motivate Utah’s top performing students to become teachers. Preliminary estimates suggest that the approximate cost of this study would be $150,000. This could be done regularly to set a statistically backed benchmark for teacher compensation. 

  • To make the compensation increases more affordable, as outlined in this vision, those increases need to be differentiated in consideration of the real costs and the disparate value of retirement benefits. Estimates were made in calculating costs for the purposes of this vision, but more precise calculations still need to be made to determine how to differentiate those salary increases.

  • The vision recommendation of fostering more, and more effective, family engagement in education merits more study and public discussion. Some Utah schools have already undertaken an effort to be more welcoming to family engagement, and that effort can be scaled up. But in addition, there may be broadly applicable core principles of effective family engagement that could be shared with parents and caregivers.

In addition, the vision does not address the following topics, although they likely still have a significant impact on teachers effectiveness, teacher satisfaction, and student learning:

  • How do we ensure prospective teachers receive world-class training from Utah’s teacher colleges? 

  • How do we best assess student outcomes and performance in ways that support students and teachers? 

  • What technology investments could play a meaningful role in teaching and learning to better support teachers?