By now, most everyone in education has heard the staggering statistic from the U.S. Department of Education: An estimated two million new teachers will need to be hired over the next 10 years. Sadly, hiring is just the first hurdle in the complex challenge of teacher retention. Approximately six percent of the nation?s teachers leave the profession in a typical year, while seven percent change schools, the National Center for Education Studies has found. And within three years, 20 percent of all new hires leave teaching, while nearly half of newcomers in urban districts leave within the first five years.
With data this bleak, how can we ensure that new career and technical education (CTE) teachers?gleaned from a diversity of backgrounds and professions?are both confident and competent in the classroom?
According to the National Education Association (NEA), new teachers who participate in induction programs like mentoring are nearly twice as likely to stay in their profession. Some even believe that mentoring programs can cut the dropout rate from roughly 50 to 15 percent during the first five years of teaching.
"The mentoring process really can be so essential," says Tommie Radd, professor of counselor education at the University of Nebraska.
Indeed, schools across the nation are instituting comprehensive mentoring programs that boast benefits for both the mentor and mentee (or protégé), including increased professional support, classroom and time management strategies, problem solving, grading procedures, and for many veteran teachers, a renewed interest in instruction.
In his article "What?s Happening in Mentoring and Induction in Each of the United States," Barry Sweeny tracked data on state-level mentoring programs, which often vary year-to-year due to funding cuts and policy changes. The surge of interest in mentoring began in the mid-1980s, with four major projects between 1985 and 1989 to examine mentoring and induction programs for new teachers, explains Sweeny, president of Best Practices Resources, an educational consulting firm based in Wheaton, Ill., and executive board member and co-founder of The Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network.
During this time period, mentoring programs grew dramatically, according to a 1987 survey by the Association of American Colleges for Teacher Education. While in 1986, 17 states had pilot programs underway and 14 states had programs under development, just one year later, only three states did not have a program.
Since the late ?80s, however, the focus on accountability has changed the picture of mentoring for many programs, shifting from improving teacher learning to student testing, Sweeny says. In the article, he argues that mentoring programs span a continuum of assistance versus assessment models, based on whether they stress the support or evaluation of novice teachers. Too often, programs attempt to serve "both masters"?assessment and assistance?and this conflict has placed undue pressure on the resources of both mentors and new teachers, he says.
"When mentors have been made responsible for both these roles, the stress on the mentors and the required program resources are very high. The result has sometimes been that the program?s success has been compromised," Sweeny says. "Linking the mentoring process to such a high-stakes result as granting or denying a teaching certificate may also have had a dampening effect on the mentoring relationship which is required for honest sharing of problems, open reflection and discussion of concerns, and a willingness to take the risks required for learning in front of one?s colleague."
The reasons for the paradigm shift are multifaceted, he says, ranging from the influence of big business, with its emphasis on assessment products, to the preponderance of non-educators in the state legislature. Furthermore, President Bush?s No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 channels money "toward testing, not growth," Sweeny laments. These obstacles have created a conflict between teacher learning and immediate student needs and student assessment.
Such requirements "can become developmentally inappropriate," he says, and often make new teachers feel guilty when focusing on their own learning, ultimately driving them away from the profession.
"Clearly, there are those who see teachers as ?the problem? and there are those who see teachers as ?the solution? to the problem," he says.
Instead, Sweeny advocates mentoring programs that focus on individualized support and integrate student learning with adult learning, while phasing in assessment as beginning classroom planning skills are mastered.
"The basic model is helping them become a reflective practitioner," he says. "Teacher learning is a prerequisite for student learning."
Radd also stresses an "integrated approach," utilizing both academic and social instruction and strategy to work with "the whole student." This process, she says, results in a more confident teacher, and, in turn, a more confident student.
"It?s the personal side ... that I find in education as a whole that we may not focus in on, ... and that can make a huge difference as a mentor and teacher," she says.
Fortunately, many of the nation?s mentoring programs place their focus where it belongs?on veteran teachers collaborating with new hires, sharing their experiences and responding to real-time classroom concerns as they arise. One such program is at Community High School District 94 in Chicago, where Patti Kozlowski teaches courses in family and consumer sciences. There, the mentoring program was developed out of a need to make the orientation process for new teachers smoother and more useful.
"The teachers were tired of being talked at," Kozlowski says. And so they streamlined the group and made meetings more informal and less overwhelming. With a staff of about 120 and a student body of 2,200, the school has some 30 mentors?tenure-track teachers trained in cognitive coaching. They are paired with a person in their department, or at least someone who shares their free period, and touch base before school officially starts, during "Institute Days."
"Proximity is important. You need time to see each other," Kozlowski says. "I think you can be so isolated ... We definitely encourage [new teachers to] get out of their room."
Instead of simply listening to harangues on school procedure, new teachers participate in orientation games, like a scavenger hunt to find the department photocopier. Get-togethers are scheduled throughout the year, and range from socials to dinners to sporting events. Meanwhile, mentors attend meetings on a monthly basis, and evaluation forms are sent to new teachers via e-mail for their feedback.
In many cases, the small concentration of inexperienced teachers in a field of veterans would present another set of problems, with new hires isolated from their colleagues and missing out on the benefit of their expertise. Susan Moore Johnson and Susan M. Kardos, authors of The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, identify this situation as an example of a veteran-oriented environment, one of three distinct school "Professional Cultures."
Novice-oriented professional cultures also can be fraught with difficulty. Often seen in start-up charter schools or poorly organized urban schools, these institutions are staffed with inexperienced teachers with little formal training, the authors say. While typically these new recruits exhibit "an abundance of energy and vigorous commitment," often they have little knowledge of how to put their scattered ideas into practice, they say.
But in integrated professional cultures?like Kozlowski?s school and other model mentor programs?ongoing professional exchange and support is encouraged between veterans and novices. In her program, frequently the school pairs a young educator fresh out of school with a 20-year veteran.
"I think it?s a great marriage?the technology of the new teacher and the experience of the mentor," she explains. "They?ve got an expertise you can use, and you?ve got an expertise they can use."
Perhaps most importantly, new teachers in this type of setting are most likely to continue teaching. In the words of Johnson and Kardos, "Initial evidence from our longitudinal study suggests that new teachers working in settings with integrated professional cultures remained in their schools and in public school teaching in higher proportions than did their counterparts in veteran-oriented or novice-oriented professional cultures. In other words, the professional culture of schools may well affect teacher retention over the long term."
The difficulty for many new CTE teachers, like those in any specialized field, is learning how to communicate and translate the technicalities of their area of expertise for the classroom, explains Nebraska?s Radd.
"I believe that career and technical educators, in some cases, have come out of disciplines that may not be as ingrained in instruction," she says.
Jan Olson, Iowa?s District Facilitator for Mentoring, feels that many new teachers benefit from having a mentor outside of their area of expertise. This way, the focus is on basic classroom issues, rather than on subject matter and content. "What we?re after is the process of teaching," she says.
Both Olson and Connie Meek, career and technical education department administrative specialist for the Clark County, Nev., School District, agree that many novice CTE teachers have little or no experience in a lab situation, further complicating the situation.
"So many times in college classes, you don?t get to do it; you get to talk about it," Olson says.
Since a lab has different class management issues than the standard classroom, observing mentors is especially helpful to learn procedures, Meek says. "We get so many business and education teachers with no classroom experience."
CTE mentors also can help integrate Career and Technical Student Organizations and business speakers into the classroom, as well as organize internships, service learning and cooperative learning experiences. And since CTE is not required in Clark County, mentors can help protégés market the strengths of their program, providing inspiration for brochures, posters and videos.
But what kind of person makes the best mentor? Meek distributes a mentor survey when looking for new recruits. Questions are designed to determine a candidate?s "mentoring potential," and require both personal introspection ("Is the amount of time you spend listening at least four times what you spend talking?") and awareness of other people?s perceptions of your skills ("Do other people reach out to you to assist them with important life or career decisions?").
Potential mentors are given a job description, summary, and list of qualifications, broken down into abilities, knowledge, demonstrated skills and experience. Mentors are required to have subject-level or grade-level experience and three or more years of "successful teaching," but also are expected to work collaboratively, maintain confidentiality, manage time effectively, model effective teaching strategies, and demonstrate interpersonal skills of caring, kindness and understanding.
Chicago?s Kozlowski adds that her ideal mentor is good listener, experienced and positive about teaching, has time in his or her schedule, and is not overly critical.
Olson says their program started in the fall of 2000 as the result of a "need to recruit the best and the brightest and keep them in the teaching profession." Accordingly, theirs is a particularly rigorous selection process. Potential mentors must have five years? experience, plus skills in instructional leadership, problem solving, reflection and listening.
Screening the applicants is a 15-member committee, made up of teachers and principals from each grade level, the human resources director, local association and college representatives, and Olson herself. Those who are selected make a two-year commitment to the mentoring program, are assigned one beginning teacher, and are given a $1,000 stipend per year.
Beginning teachers are required to attend two external visits per year, for which they are provided subs, while mentors must observe their mentees at least four times a year. In addition, they exchange e-mail and write logs on their experiences, which often guide the feedback at their monthly meetings.
The content of monthly meetings is based on the individual teacher?s needs. For instance, teachers with a high concentration of limited-English-speaking students may desire extra coaching just before parent-teacher conferences, and mentors can help role-play common parent questions and concerns.
"It?s all designed to keep the beginning teacher focused on teaching," she says.
But the advantages go both ways; mentors report that they benefit from "serious professional conversations" with their protégés, and mentees are provided "a structure for training and ongoing support," Olson says.
Perhaps the greatest testament to the program is that they haven?t lost a single first- or second-year teacher who was assigned a mentor during the past two years.
As the sixth largest school district in the nation, Clark County hires some 1,500 to 1,700 new teachers each year.
"That led us to believe we needed to do something more than [saying] ... ?We?re hiring you, and good luck,?" Meek laughs.
As a result, she helped create a class for aspiring mentors three years ago: Mentoring Aspiring Technical Educators (MATE). Potential mentors must have at least three years? teaching experience and "good, positive things to offer," Meek says. Ultimately, they are paired with someone in their area of expertise, but not always with someone in the same school. Mentors and protégés in different schools are given stipends to visit each other?"anything to make it easier for them to get together," she explains.
Before school starts, they devote a full day to mentoring activities at an orientation at a nearby conference site; a similar event, with added feedback and discussion, takes place at the end of the year as well.
Then MATE officially begins, with the following course goals:
- To introduce mentors to the skills and knowledge necessary for becoming an effective mentor
- To understand the roles and responsibilities of mentors and mentees
- To conduct semester meetings with mentees
- To develop a mentor/mentee action plan
- To establish and maintain a positive relationship with mentees
The benefits go well beyond learning how to handle the forms and procedural requirements of a large school district. Mentors can turn to a list of suggested activities and topics of discussion for their monthly meetings with mentees, including lesson planning, what to expect on the first day of school, discipline, how to get parents involved, and especially classroom management, which Meek feels is essential for good teaching.
Although the suggested timeline of activities includes one mentor observation in the first semester and a mentee observation in the second, mentors are encouraged to stop by the new teacher?s classroom regularly, just to check in and touch base.
"A lot of the time ... [mentees] know they need something, but they don?t know what," Meek explains.
In the midst of all of the course activities and observations, it may appear easy to forget the reason why mentoring programs exist in the first place: to improve student learning. But as any teacher will tell you, students are at the root of their own education and professional development?essential components of any successful school.
"I think if you have teachers that are comfortable in their classroom ... and have support, ... that can be passed on to the student," Meek says.
Or, in the words of Iowa?s Olson, "The best way to improve student achievement is to improve teacher quality."
NEA?s Foundation for the Improvement of Education offers a free online paper on "Creating a Teacher Mentoring Program" at www.nfie.org/publications/mentoring.htm. Resources on teacher mentoring can be found on Barry Sweeny?s Web site at http://teachermentors.com.
For more information on The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, visit www.gse.harvard.edu/~ngt.
Susan Brown is the former editor of Career Tech Update, ACTE?s bimonthly newsletter. She now works as a freelance writer and editor, and as the artist/owner of Sass Brown Designs, specializing in jewelry made from recycled game pieces and Asian charms.
