Toolkit: New Teacher Support

A NEW TEACHER'S PERSPECTIVE

Ms. Joel is a first year 6th grade teacher at a high-needs school. Her preparation program covered pedagogical theory, but she's completely overwhelmed by lesson planning, classroom management, and parent engagement for a full course load of 120 students. She attended a four-day induction program, and her mentor said she can drop by with questions, but she's still overworked and undersupported—and her students can tell. Ms. Joel doesn't know if she'll return next year.

 

NEW TEACHER SUPPORT: RESIDENCIES AND MORE

Many school systems struggle with a teacher shortage—specifically, a lack of effective educators for the highest-need schools and subjects. High turnover among new teachers is often part of the problem. While school and district leaders want to grow and retain effective educators, most feel constrained by limited budgets. But it is possible to provide new teacher support with the resources school systems have today. In strategic schools, new teachers’ roles are fundamentally different from those of their experienced peers.

Strategic school systems enable schools to create roles with "shelter" (i.e., reduced workload) and "development" (i.e., opportunities to grow skills and practice) built in. These may be "teacher residencies," or simply innovative school designs (involving changes to scheduling, staffing, class sizes, and more) that support new teachers. The Growing Great Teachers Toolkit is based on ERS' experience working with several school systems to reorganize resources for new teacher residencies or new teacher support.

New Teacher Support in Action: Louisiana

• New Teacher Support: Lessons from Eight Louisiana School Systems
  ERS' Emily Mayer shares 3 big lessons learned from the working with schools systems in Louisiana who have increased time for new, altenative certification teachers to work with mentors.
• Louisiana Releases Toolkit to Increase Mentoring for Alternate Certification Teachers
  The Louisiana Department of Education releases a toolkit tailored to school systems in their state, which guides school leaders in how to reorganize resources to provide new teachers with time with mentors in order to give them more "shelter" and "development" opportunities.
• This State is Reimagining How to Mentor Teachers in Alternative Certification Programs
  An Education Week article that describes the Louisiana pilot program and how it impacts schools, teachers, and students
• Full Preparation for All: Mentoring in Alternate Preparation Programs
  The Louisiana Department of Education highlights the work ERS did with eight Louisiana school systems to provide shelter and development to new teachers in alternative certification programs.

For CFOs and School Business Leaders

• New Teachers: High Investment, or High Return on Investment? 
  David Rosenberg shares ERS' learnings on investing in new teachers with School Business Affairs Magazine and the CFO/ SBO audience.

Tools and Publications by Other Organizations on Teacher Turnover and Preparation

• Redesiging Teacher Preparation for the Public Good 
  Bank Street College of Education presents a set of models to reallocate resources toward residency-style teacher preparation.
• Design for Impact 
  The National Center for Teacher Residencies and Public Impact provide guidance on designing and implementing residency programs through a financial sustainability lens
• Partnering on Prep
  Education First shares tools and recommendations about how to develop strong partnerships between school districts and teacher preparation programs.
• Smart Start: Mentoring for New Teachers Benefits Kids
  Teach Plus teachers in Texas highlight the need for excellent mentoring, including the importance of release time for mentors to work with new teachers.
• Teacher Turnover: Why it Matters and What We Can Do About It
  Desire Carver-Thomas and Linda Darling-Hammon of the Learning Policy Institute examine trends, causes, and polices to address teacher turnover across the country.
• What School Districts Can Do to Tackle Teacher Shortages 
  National Council on Teacher Quality elaborates on the challenges school districts are facing in the wake of teacher shortages, and outlines actions at the district at the state level for resolution. 

THE STRATEGIC SYSTEM

New teacher support and residencies should be designed as part of a holistic strategy for system-wide change. This means connecting it to other elements like:

• Teaching: New teachers thrive in schools with effective teacher teams, clear roles for teacher leaders, a culture of feedback, and access to rigorous curriculum. 
  Read more:
  >> Connected Professional Learning
  >> Teacher Leadership checklist

• Strategic School Design: School leaders need to learn how to organize people, time, and money to support new teachers, school culture, and student outcomes. We call this Strategic School Design - and school systems must support it.
  Read more: 
  >> Designing Schools that Work
  >> Finding Time for Collaborative Planning

• Funding & Portfolio: If school leaders are to innovate with new models, school systems need to allocate funds equitably, transparently and flexibly. Student-based budgeting helps systems achieve that. 
  Read more:
  >> Transforming School Funding for Equity, Transparency, and Flexibility: An Introduction to Student-based Budgeting