Supporting and Retaining High Quality Educators

How To

Promising Practices

Develop effective induction and mentorship programs to reduce voluntary attrition

Novice teachers are typically assigned to teach the lowest performing groups or least academically-proficient students (positions that other teachers chose to vacate), and are often given insufficient professional support. The chances of a new teacher leaving the profession at the end of the first year are 20% for a teacher with no access to induction programs vs. 11.8% for those who had a helpful mentor in the same field, common planning time with the mentor, and collaboration with other teachers on instruction

Critical Success Factors: Diversity Benefit:
  • Highly successful teacher-mentors are identified and inducted into mentorship program
  • In-service teacher coaching is prioritized over online modules
  • An existing talent pool of excellent teachers in-district serve as coaches, mentors and program managers
 More than three-quarters of teachers of color are employed in predominantly urban, high-poverty and high-minority schools. High-minority, high-poverty schools face not only high rates of teacher attrition and absences, but are also twice as likely to have the most inexperienced (new) teachers. Induction and mentoring programs have been shown to reduce turnover rates of new teachers of color.
Spotilghts
Connecticut's Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) Program (CT)
Description The TEAM Program is a two-year induction program for new teachers that includes mentorship and professional development support that new educators need to be successful. Beginning teachers must complete up to five professional growth modules focused on the Common Core of Teaching (CCT) domains: classroom environment, planning, instruction, assessment, and professional responsibility. Mentors and beginning teachers work together to identify a need/opportunity for professional learning based on the teacher’s own self-assessment, using the CCT Performance Profiles, feedback from observations conducted by the mentor and/or an evaluator, student data, and established student learning goals.
Scope of Reach All teachers who work under an initial educator certificate or an interim initial educator certificate and are employed in either a full- or part-time position in a fully contracted position or as a long-term substitute in a full 10-month assignment
Timeframe 2009 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds State of Connecticut
Actor(s) Implementing State via District Facilitators (DFs)
Results
  • Since the program’s inception, 11,621 teachers have completed TEAM. Of those, 10,569 stayed teaching in the following year, giving TEAM a 91% first-year teacher retention rate.
The Flowing Wells Teacher Induction Program for Success (AZ)
Description New teachers receive four days of intensive training in early August before the school year begins. Throughout the first year, staff development coordinators – master teachers who receive stipends and release time in order to work with the teachers they are mentoring – serve as mentors to all new teachers, observing each new teacher 5 times. During a teacher's second year, instructional coordinators mentor the new teachers. In their third and fourth years, teachers receive advanced training in instructional strategies, cooperative learning, higher-level thinking, and more.
Scope of Reach Newly-hired first-time teachers, with training that is specific to the stages of teacher growth
Timeframe 1985 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds State of Arizona
Actor(s) Implementing Arizona school districts
Results
  • Reduced attrition rate for new teachers
  • Reduced anxiety for first-year teachers
  • Increased student achievement
  • Increased teachers’ willingness to participate in career-long staff development
Framework for Inducting, Retaining, and Supporting Teachers (FIRST) program (LA)
Description FIRST commences with a highly structured four-day training session for all new teachers in early August taught by Curriculum Coordinators. At each school site new teachers are paired with mentor teachers, who offer guidance and assistance during the first two years of teaching. Districts hand-select their most effective teachers to spend their days in classrooms observing and providing feedback to other teachers, conducting demonstration lessons, assisting teachers in setting up classroom management plans, and lending their expertise to new teachers. During the second and third years, curriculum coordinators and instructional facilitators continue to work closely with the new teachers.
Scope of Reach All new teachers in the district, with training that is specific to the stages of teacher growth
Timeframe 1996 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds State of Louisiana
Actor(s) Implementing School parishes
Results
  • In school year 2001-2002, the Lafourche Parish Public Schools district retained 46 out of 47 teachers; of 279 teachers hired in the district in the previous 4 years, only 11 have left teaching; Louisiana adopted the FIRST program as statewide model for all school districts
Professional Educator Induction Program (MD)
Description New teachers are welcomed by administration and assigned to demonstration classrooms specific to their grade levels, content areas, or specialty areas with four days of highly structure training. Throughout the two-year induction period, teachers are assigned a formal mentor, may enroll in a voluntary teacher-coaching program, and have "buddy systems" set up at individual schools. Other resources include State-proven Workshops-Modulated Experiences (SAW-ME) courses, online professional development and professional development programs.
Scope of Reach All new teachers to the district, with training that is specific to the stages of teacher growth.
Timeframe 1998 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds Prince George’s County Public Schools
Actor(s) Implementing Prince George’s County Public Schools
Results
  • Reduced attrition rate for new teachers; program met with eager support and enthusiasm from administrators, mentor teachers, classroom teachers, students, parents, the community and induction participants.
Promote collective decision-making and individual classroom autonomy to reduce voluntary attrition

Schools in which minority teachers have disproportionately been employed have had, on average, less positive organizational conditions than the schools where White teachers are more likely to work, resulting in disproportionate losses of minority teachers. The conditions most strongly related to minority teacher turnover are the level of collective faculty decision-making influence and the degree of individual classroom autonomy held by teachers. Schools can implement measures that increase collective faculty decision-making to increase retention

Critical Success Factors: Diversity Benefit:
  • Teachers having meaningful/tangible influence in several autonomy areas (see next slide)
  • Governance boards/bodies must have or develop an appetite for innovative school governance models
  • Faculty must be prepared for a reduced influence of school administration; leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school
 Schools allowing more autonomy for teachers in regard to classroom issues and schools with higher levels of faculty input into school-wide decisions have far lower levels of turnover. As these factors serve as the top two reasons teachers of color leave schools and / or the profession, reevaluating and improving these issues should lead to increased retention of teachers of color.
Spotilghts
Hughes STEM High School (OH)
Description At Hughes STEM High School (98% African American student population), teachers utilized an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) provision in a collective bargaining agreement between the Cincinnati School Board and the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers to create the teacher-powered school. Hughes STEM HS operates with a district-approved principal, but all decisions are made collectively by teachers and the principal to maintain authority and autonomy for teachers. According to the ILT provision, the principal cannot veto what the group of teachers decides
Scope of Reach Individual school within the public school district
Timeframe 2009 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds National Science Foundation provided $3.5M grant to launch. Now a part of OH public schools
Actor(s) Implementing Hughes STEM High School Teachers
Results
  • School boasts a consistent 95%+ teacher retention rate (100% in some years)
  • Parents are more involved and student achievement has increased since the school’s inception
Social Justice Humanitas Academy (SJHA) (CA)
Description SJHA teachers define their own working conditions, including curricular requirements and leadership roles within the school. Part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), SJHA is a teacher-powered pilot school serving 520 students in grades 9-12. Its student body is 94% Latino, with 87% qualifying for free or reduced lunch and 80% speaking English as a second language. SJHA students face poverty, language barriers and challenges Associated with low-income communities – gangs, drugs, violence, lack of access to resources, and the consistent low expectations within and outside their community
Scope of Reach Individual school within public school district
Timeframe 2000 - Present
Budget / Sources of funds Los Angeles Unified School District
Actor(s) Implementing Superintendent
Results
  • 94% student graduation rate; in 2015 was named a National Community School of Excellence
  • The highest student and teacher attendance rate in LAUSD
Principals assume hands-on role in sponsoring teachers of color and providing leadership pathways

Leadership at the school level is an essential ingredient in teacher retention. Effective principals set a tone in the building that encourages professional collaboration and continuous improvement. Principals should act as sponsors to TOC by providing regular, positive feedback, placing TOC on hiring committees, recognizing accomplishments of TOC publically and frequently, giving TOC important responsibilities or opportunities to lead projects and spend time talking to and understanding the needs of each individual TOC in their buildings

Critical Success Factors: Diversity Benefit:
  • A principal who understands the value of retaining TOC and is committed to promoting and sponsoring those in their building
  • Developing clear leadership pathways for TOC (and all teachers)
  • Avoiding appearance of bias or unfairness on the part of non-diverse staff
  • Race-conscious principals
 Among people of color, sponsorship is particularly crucial in invigorating ambition and driving engagement. 53% of African American teachers with a sponsor are satisfied with their rate of advancement, compared with 35% of those without such advocacy. Sponsorship is also a key retention tool; people of color with sponsors are less likely than those without sponsors to quit within a year
Establish minority affinity groups to reduce voluntary teacher attrition

Teachers expect to enjoy some sense of bonding with colleagues of their own culture. It is important to have cultural or social support groups in the communities in which pre-service students will eventually teach. Communities without minority associations or other minority teachers will have difficulty attracting minority candidates. Communities with minority associations demonstrate commitment to fostering inclusive environments

Critical Success Factors: Diversity Benefit:
  • Administrative support
  • Budgets for events and programming
 The lack of cultural or support groups, particularly in rural or suburban placements, either prevents minorities from applying or causes them to leave after one or two years. Having cultural support groups both attracts TOC to the district and serves as an effective retention tool as well as providing leadership opportunities within the affinity groups
Inform CT stakeholders about the disproportional impact of involuntary attrition on TOC

Administrators and legislators should be briefed on the effects of any accountability policies, school closings, and reconstitution plans on teachers of color who more often work in schools targeted for intervention. School closings, turnaround efforts, and reconstitutions of schools into charter schools are more often implemented in high-poverty communities where teachers of color work. These efforts have resulted in involuntary dismissals, difficulty with rehire and in some cases, early retirement among educators of color

Critical Success Factors: Diversity Benefit:
  • Making the data a priority that top of mind for policymakers considering deconstruction policies of schools
  • Understanding potential implications under “Disparate Impact” legal doctrine, which looks at systems that produce different results for different racial groups
In situations where accountability policies, school closings, and reconstitution plans occur, policymakers will be positioned to be more cognizant of their effects on teachers of color, and devise innovative solutions to curb the disproportionate and adverse impact on them