Statements
Mission
EdCo is a non-profit organization working to build and nurture a professional collaborative network for K-12 teachers. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, EdCo provides infrastructure for educators to collaborate across all sectors: public, private, and charter. Our mission is to facilitate this mutual aid network and reduce teacher turnover to increase student betterment.
Our vision is to revolutionize teacher development by focusing on the agency, autonomy, and common ground all teachers share. By re-connecting educators with themselves and each other, EdCo gives opportunities for collaboration that have been proven to help retain effective teachers.
Background
In 2014, Nashville educator Greg O'Loughlin received a Fellowship to attend the Klingenstein Summer Institute, where teachers from around the world gather for two weeks in late June to explore teaching styles, educational philosophies, and issues facing schools. That experience made clear to Greg the power of facilitated, teacher-to-teacher development. He returned to his position as a sixth grade English teacher at University School of Nashville motivated to create the time and space for all educators in his Nashville community to learn from, and alongside, one another (regardless of the type of school in which they teach). Having taught in both public and private schools in Nashville, managed small businesses, and garnered understanding of non-profit management, Greg decided to channel his knowledge and experience into founding a new initiative: The Educators' Cooperative (EdCo).
EdCo began as a small cohort of 20 teachers of grades 3-8 gathering for a week in the summer of 2016. The organization incorporated in 2017. By 2019, the year that independent 501(c)3 status was established for the organization, EdCo had grown into an organization of more than 100 teachers of grades K-12 gathering each summer for a weeklong workshop, monthly for continued collaboration, and continually via books clubs, more traditional professional development, and a private online space created for teachers by EdCo. By that point, it was already clear that EdCo was poised to continue exponential growth in the years to come.
As of June 2023, more than 1,500 teachers from more than 300 schools have participated in EdCo programs. That translates to more than 99,000 students impacted by the work of EdCo teachers to support one another, share best practices, and collaborate.
Impact
The research is clear about teacher impact on educational outcomes. Teacher quality is the single most important school-based factor in student outcomes and achievement. Yet, 18% of teachers leave the classroom every year and 50% of those teachers are leaving in their first 3 years. 33% of teachers in Nashville report that they would leave the profession today if offered a higher paying job. This is a costly problem. Recruiting, hiring, and training replacement teachers costs anywhere from $10,000 per teacher in rural and suburban districts up to $21,000 per teacher in urban settings. Teacher turnover cost MNPS an estimated $9.5 million in 2018. Additionally, teachers leaving mid year cost a student between 32 to 74 instructional days.
One of the top three reasons that teachers cite as their reason for leaving is a lack of professional agency, or a lack of autonomy in choosing the course of their own professional growth. EdCo creates and facilitates the support needed to address issues concerning professional agency, decisional capital, and collaborative professional - the factors that contribute to the third most reported cause of teacher turnover. And, research shows that eliminating teacher turnover entirely increases student achievement in math by 2-4%.
Since 2016, EdCo has created a professional, collaborative network that gives teachers that autonomy in choosing their professional development opportunities, access to teachers all over the region who offer feedback, ideas, and resources whenever needed, and opportunities to meet regularly with a cross-sector professional learning community for support and additional learning opportunities.
At its inception, EdCo consisted of 20 teachers from across Nashville, serving about 1200 students. It has steadily grown over the past five years and by 2020 had membership of nearly 150 teachers and participation by more than 1,500 teachers, serving more than 57,000 students in Middle Tennessee. Not only are more students being taught by EdCo teachers, but EdCo members report higher job satisfaction, more effective collaborative professionalism across all sectors, disciplines, and grade levels, and an increased likelihood of staying in the classroom longer, which all point to more positive outcomes for students. EdCo is poised to continue this growth exponentially over the next several years.
Some of EdCo's most significant accomplishments include:
EdCo was awarded The Inspiring Innovation Award from the Nashville Public Education Foundation in 2018.
EdCo was featured in a global campaign by WordPress as a "Nonprofit to Watch" in 2018.
EdCo hosts Middle Tennessee's largest EdCamp, a free professional "unconference", bringing together over 200 teachers from the region.
EdCo was identified by national media on NPR's Marketplace Morning Report in 2019, as an innovative model to develop teacher agency, autonomy, and professional capital.
Three foundational goals:
1. Stable, sustainable growth of operations, staff, and data collection.
2. Greater facility and complexity in data collection and analysis.
3. Increased depth and reach of impact through more schools, teachers, and students.
Needs
1. Marketing and public relations resources to help educate more teachers about the benefits of joining EdCo.
2. Funding for general operations and staff compensation.
3. Funding for technology-based resources such as web-presence, online forums, member management, and e-communications.
4. Funding for management to help process and utilize Nashville teacher job satisfaction and retention likelihood data gained through surveys and focus groups conducted in partnership with Vanderbilt Peabody Leadership and Organizational Performance Program.
5. Funding and/or in-kind support to provide food, beverages, event space, and supplies for weeklong summer workshop and monthly meetings.
CEO Statement
The Educators' Cooperative is unlike any other teacher professional development opportunity in the country. The purpose is to create the time and space for teachers in all settings - whether public, private, or charter - to collaborate and share best practices in teaching and learning. We aim to create a new path of teacher leadership, as well as to increase teacher retention.
At the core, we want kids to feel safe in any school environment, and the key to achieving that is through teachers. Working to address the elements of teaching and learning that take place in complex and adaptive systems, our work of educator community-building on behalf of all students in all school settings is exactly what growth-minded teachers have been looking for. When you take smart, focused, loving people and give them the tools to collaborate, amazing things happen. EdCo provides the infrastructure and safe space to do just that, and it's proving to be exactly what Nashville teachers needed.
Board Chair Statement
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I'm changing the things I cannot accept.
This quote from Angela Davis is the driving force behind why I decided to serve as board chair for The
Educators Cooperative (EdCo). In a world where so many try to divide educators based upon who pays
our checks (public, private, charter) EdCo provides a safe space for all educators to gather and share
knowledge because we understand no matter what type of school we teach in, we are still serving
students.
As an educator when I heard the motto of EdCo (For Teachers By Teachers) I knew this was the
place for me. A place that the primary focus is on supporting teachers, through the lens of other
practitioners. I have a personal motto of colleagues don't let colleagues fail, and every time I witness a
EdCamp Nash event, a weekend Coffee session, or the plethora of weekly calls that EdCo hosts my heart
smiles as I know this organization is living proof that my motto is still alive in the field of education.
Serving as board chair of The Educators Cooperative is a honor that I will forever cherish as it is a
reminder of the life changing work we do in education and the power we possess when teachers get
together and let our voices be heard.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Education - Education N.E.C. |
| Secondary Category: | - |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
We seek to serve all schools in Davidson and its surrounding counties. We currently have member teachers from Davidson, Williamson, and Maury counties and Franklin Special Schools, and we are working to spread awareness and gain members in schools throughout Middle Tennessee. We also have member teachers from Chattanooga, expanding our reach beyond Nashville.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Wilson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Cheatham |
| TN - Maury |
