District Administration - September 2007 - (Page 52)

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION trained instructional coach who observes their teaching and oﬀers feedback. Although the district is seeing impressive results, says Melinda Lowe, professional development coordinator, it still shows a high teacher turnover rate due to military-related transfers at the nearby Air Force base. Out of the 62 ﬁrst- and second-year teachers who participated in the program, six will be leaving. Instead of military transfers, it’s the high cost of living that contributes to teacher turnover in Fairfax County, Va., where many new teachers must work a second job to aﬀord living there. Though reducing attrition remains a core goal of the district’s new teacher induction program, Sharon Mullen, director of professional practice and training for Fairfax County Public Schools, acknowledges that improving the eﬀectiveness of new teachers has assumed a larger role over the last ﬁve years: “Our job now is to make teachers better faster because they may not be staying for a long time, but they do have those kids in front of them.” The district’s homegrown teacher induction program, Great Beginnings, now serves as a model program for other Virginia districts. All teachers new to the 165,000-student district participate in the program, with novice elementary teachers staying in the program for three years, beginning high school teachers following a two-year path, and experienced teachers who are new to the district undergoing a year-long induction. To further cut costs, the district uses a renewable federal Title II grant for the mentor resource teacher component of Great Beginnings. After undergoing training to become a mentor, recently retired teachers and those on childcare leave visit the schools weekly to work with novice teachers by observing their teaching or modeling lessons. Funding Struggles While Columbus and Fairfax developed and implemented a program, other districts still struggle with new teacher induction and limited resources. Budget cuts have led to fewer new teacher coaches in the School District of Philadelphia. A former new teacher coach, Suzanne Newman, is known as a “school growth teacher” at the district, working with experienced and beginning teachers, leading professional development courses, analyzing student assessment scores to help teachers drive their instruction and observing classroom teachers. “When funds need to be cut because administrators or the board think there’s too much ‘ﬂuﬀ,’ it’s the people whose job descriptions are not immediately touching the students that get the boot because we look like we’re disposable,” she says. “It’s such a shame, but sometimes it takes too long to see the impact.” Some districts, like Durham, use grants to pay for an established, research-based program, creating self-sustainability. At Durham, whose three-year grant from Duke University and the Duke Endowment ends next year, six staﬀ members are being trained to serve as mentor trainers endorsed in the New Teacher Center model, which allows the district to use in-house staﬀ and the center’s materials to create professional development courses. “The human cost is still there,” Williams says. “But we anticipate that there will be fewer and fewer beginning teachers because they will be staying in the profession longer, and thus the need to hire more begins to reduce, and the number of mentors ultimately will be reduced. The ultimate signal of success is that you make yourself obsolete.” DA Jennifer Maciejewski is a freelance writer based in Atlanta. District Administration Steps for a Successful Teacher Induction Program Secure funding by winning grants, creating local bonds or sales taxes, matching government funds or reallocating district resources. Build in release time for mentors to observe new teachers as well as for new teachers to observe other teachers in their content areas. Use formative assessment to monitor the new teachers’ growth and development over the course of the school year in addition to formal evaluations. Offer targeted professional development sessions for new teachers that cover everything from classroom management to assessment, and make a mentor available to help translate theory into actual classroom practice. Differentiate instruction for beginning teachers who are new to the profession and experienced teachers who are new to the district. Set regular meetings throughout the year for new teachers to network with each other, share instructional strategies and ﬁnd solutions to their speciﬁc problems. Teach the mentors what they need to know to be effective in their new role, from assessing the new teacher’s development to serving as an instructional coach. RESOURCES Center for Teacher Quality www.teachingquality.org Columbus Municipal School District www.columbuscityschools.org Durham Public Schools www.dpsnc.net Fairfax County Public Schools www.fcps.edu Oakland Uniﬁed School District ntsd.ousd.k12.ca.us Ravenswood City School District www.ravenswood.k12.ca.us School District of Philadelphia www.sshs.phila.k12.pa.us 52 September 2007 http://www.teachingquality.org http://www.columbuscityschools.org http://www.dpsnc.net http://www.fcps.edu http://ntsd.ousd.k12.ca.us http://www.ravenswood.k12.ca.us http://www.sshs.phila.k12.pa.us

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2007

Cover Contents Editor’s Letter Letters News Update Curriculum Update Inside the Law District Profile Administrator Profile District Buying Power 2007 X-Factor Student Achievement Awards 2007 We've Got Mail Supporting New Teachers How Well Does This Web Site Work? New Products Problem Solution Computer Literature Research Corner Online Edge Supervisor’s Opinion Speaking Out Calendar of Events Understanding the Times

District Administration - September 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.