Six Degrees of Preparation

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Commissioned by a state body of higher education, Six Degrees of Preparation exposes damaging belief systems and practices in school districts and schools of education, vividly portraying their effect on new teachers and the children they serve. Pulling from more than 300 interviews with teachers, teacher candidates, teacher educators, teacher leaders, and students, Six Degrees brings issues of teacher preparation, support, and retention into stark relief.

“As hard as this show is to see, it is inspiring. It reminds me why we work as hard as we do and why — at my age — I’m still doing this.” —State department of education administrator, New York

Shake up your teacher education or induction program with Six Degrees.

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.”–The Shawshank Redemption

Audience Response

     “Six Degrees of Preparation gives voice to the intense emotional and intellectual challenges faced by novice educators: to match their passion to teach with the real world of the first-year teacher. This is a must-see for administrators, mentors, and university teacher preparation faculty.”—Dr. Pamela Moran, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Albemarle County (Virginia) Public Schools 

     “Brooke Haycock presented Six Degrees of Preparation at a New Teachers Mentoring Consortium in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Following her performance, dialogue groups discussed the struggle students and teachers face every day in classrooms across America. If we ever needed to shake up our educational system, it is now.... Brooke Haycock’s Six Degrees of Preparation is a great way to get the dialogue going.”—Dr. Kathy Ofstedal, professor, School of Education, St. Cloud University

     “Having worn virtually every hat shown on that stage, I can say from personal experience that everybody needs to see this show—teachers, faculty, administrators, policymakers. They need to see it because they need to understand, truly understand, what’s really going down.”—a district administrator

     “We could all give names to each of those characters—and many of us probably resist seeing some of ourselves in them. We all need to see this.”—dean, school of Education

     “As hard as this show is to see, it is inspiring. It reminds me why we work as hard as we do and why—at my age—I’m still doing this. The truth is, there’s still a lot of work to do. We need reminders like this.”—a state department of education administrator

 Bring Six Degrees to Your Community

     Bring Six Degrees to your school of education, district, or state to reinforce the urgency of the need to examine beliefs, practices, and supports in our schools of education and in the schools and districts that receive our new teachers.

Getting Started with Six Degrees: Theater Leadership Guide

Contact Brooke at bhaycock@edtrust.org or 202/293-1217 x330.