The Momentum to Elevate Teaching Continues
A growing campaign to amplify teachers and elevate the teaching profession across the state of Minnesota.
ST PAUL (Feb 13, 2024)― After 18 months of deep community engagement and community-centered research through the Elevate Teaching campaign, the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) has granted funds for the continuation and expansion of the Elevate Teaching campaign.
The 2023 Legislature reauthorized grant funding for a marketing and outreach campaign designed to elevate the teaching profession and recruit teachers, especially teachers of color, high school and college students, and adults seeking a career change. PELSB, the state agency that oversees the issuance and renewal of teacher licenses in the state of Minnesota and the agency responsible for issuing the funds, granted this funding to continue the Elevate Teaching campaign.
Beyond a traditional marketing campaign, Elevate Teaching will continue to mobilize individuals, especially from BIPOC communities, to be champions of the teaching profession. Through this movement, the aim is to transform the public narrative about the profession and to elevate teaching to the reverence it deserves for our children and in our society, starting in Minnesota.
Elevate Teaching utilized deep community engagement, to co-create an artist-designed and branded framework of 6 Key Messages & supporting ideas about the teaching profession. These ideas shift how we view, talk about and relate to teaching in a more nuanced and impactful way. The six messages are: Teaching is Creative. Teaching is Legacy. Teaching is Teamwork. Teaching is Community Building. Teaching is Opportunity. Teaching is Evolving.
This message framework forms the foundation of the Elevate Teaching campaign that will continue to be amplified across social media and expand its storytelling reach through individualized messaging toolkits, ads and media placements, merchandise, and new content channels. The campaign will also include strategic outreach, to expand and engage new audiences using this message framework. Outreach includes workshops, speaking engagements, career fairs, and community events, among other things.
In addition, this campaign will also include more direct navigation to resources for those starting their exploration into the profession.
The campaign will serve both as a tool to engage and inspire individuals and communities to consider, reconsider or advocate for the profession of education, and also to provide an intentional community that fosters continued engagement through resource support.
How to get involved:
Champions for the teaching profession are invited to continue to support the movement, including current teachers, teacher preparation providers, school districts, local businesses, and parents, caregivers, and students alike. Opportunities to participate include nominating and sharing impactful teacher stories, spreading the message about the opportunities of the teaching profession, and showing appreciation for teachers by honoring them at the highest level.
There will be many opportunities to participate in the campaign as a champion to the teaching profession. Visit elevateteaching.us/toolkit for more information or contact Marketing Manager, Zara Zanussi at zara.zanussi@collectivity.coop.
About Partners:
To conduct this work, PELSB has granted funds through a competitive process to both Plum Blossom Strategy LLC, led by Dr. Rose Wan-Mui Chu and Collectivity, led by Scott Cole and Shehla Mushtaq. Together these two partners will collaborate closely to achieve the aims of the Elevate Teaching campaign.
Plum Blossom Strategy
Plum Blossom Strategy is led by Dr. Rose Wan-Mui Chu. Dr. Chu has dedicated her professional life to the tireless pursuit of education equity and excellence. Rose is an experienced educator and consultant with a diverse professional portfolio centered on equity and justice, and advancing systems change. Her original engineering background and experience at Honeywell, coupled with her most honored role as a classroom teacher at Plymouth Youth Center and Minneapolis Public Schools, have continued to ground her life’s work in educational reform and transformation. She is professor emerita of Urban Education at Metropolitan State University, and a former assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Education. Rose has been serving as a school board director at Roseville Area Schools since January 2020 and is a 2022 Bush Fellow.
Collectivity
Collectivity is a management consulting & technology services cooperative that supports organizations in building operational capacity to accelerate mission, and effectively collaborate to deliver impact in the communities they serve. We work exclusively with foundations, nonprofits, local government, and communities leading collaborative initiatives around education, affordable housing, employment, transportation, health and wellness. Collectivity works closely with clients to integrate offerings when one solution may not meet all the needs of an organization.
