At Gateway, school is back in session, with all the excitement and frenetic activity those first few weeks entail! Whether this is your first year with students or your 30th, we hope you’re feeling energized by the boundless opportunity of a new year!

August is officially here and for most of us, that means the first day of school or our program year is right around the corner! But don’t panic -- Early Impact is back with more resources and tools to set you and your students up for success. 

Welcome back to Early Impact, our bi-weekly roundup of strategies and tools vetted by the student agency experts at Gateway Impact, designed to help you super-charge student learning and engagement in the new school year. Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, or work with students in a different capacity, you’ll find resources, research, and learning opportunities centered on best practices for serving diverse learners.

Whether your adventures lead you to an exotic beach or just to your favorite spot on your patio, we hope you’re making the most of the season. At the same time, for those of us who support students both in and out of the classroom, it’s all but impossible not to think ahead to the new school year! To aid in your planning and help you start the year off strong, we’re introducing Early Impact, a bi-weekly roundup of strategies and tools vetted by our student agency experts at Gateway Impact. 

Research confirms that highly skilled teaching is the most important factor for student success in school. Yet, nearly 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years. Nationally, annual teacher turnover is 14%, and, in urban school districts, the turnover is even higher, at 20%. Such high turnover can be destabilizing to schools and heartbreaking to students.