The Tucson Regional Educator Collaborative (TREC) is a group of educators and stakeholders committed to supporting meaningful, high quality, and inclusive professional learning for birth-12th grade teachers throughout Southern Arizona. We want to improve access to professional growth opportunities, develop teacher leaders, and increase teacher retention.
Our MISSION: TREC connects the region’s educators with resources and opportunities that support their evolving professional growth.
Our VISION: A collaborative and inclusive community that cultivates a thriving teaching profession.
Our VALUES: Equity, Connections, Teachers are Experts, Inclusivity, Innovation
WHO WE ARE
No single entity can wholly support educator professional learning in Southern Arizona. This is why TREC was built —to serve as a hub for birth-12th grade educators to find learning and leadership opportunities that both meet their own individual professional growth needs and advance efforts by schools/districts to support and retain their teachers.
Based in the the University of Arizona College of Education, TREC includes as partners eight regional school districts and several charter and independent schools, as well as a 100+ professional learning providers, community organizations, and governmental agencies. Along with that, TREC cultivates a close relationship with dozens of teacher leaders throughout Southern Arizona to provide a voice within our Collaborative for the wider educator community.
OUR APPROACH
Our approach to professional learning is driven by the premise that teachers are professionals and should have more choice with how they grow and advance their careers.
That is, schools and districts provide their teachers with important professional learning and leadership opportunities, but schools/districts are often limited by resource and time constraints that prevent them from meeting the individual needs of all of their teachers. This reality is complemented by an abundance of local and national survey data indicating that teachers are calling for more meaningful, high-quality, and inclusive professional learning and leadership opportunities — both where they teach and elsewhere in their communities.
To answer this call, TREC works to improve educator access to innovative and inclusive collaborations across stakeholders that prioritize educators’ needs and advance school/district efforts to support their teachers.
OUR LONG-TERM GOALS
- Support: Provide a platform for birth-12th grade educators in Southern Arizona — which includes classroom teachers, counselors, aides, specialists, administrators, staff, coaches, etc. — to find professional learning and leadership opportunities that best fit their needs.
- Advocate: Raise greater community awareness of Southern Arizona educators’ need for meaningful, high-quality, and inclusive professional growth opportunities.
- Grow: Create new professional growth opportunities in collaboration with partners whenever these educator needs are unmet.
- Connect: Support connections and community-building between educators across Southern Arizona.
IMPACT REPORTS
It has been amazing to see all that TREC and its stakeholders have accomplished since kicking off the Collaborative in 2019. To learn more, please click below.