EQUIP

Teacher Quality Squared
by Janet Gless and Ellen MoirPublished in the Journal of Staff Development, National Staff

Development Council. Winter 2001. Volume 22. Number 1. Page 62

Nearly twelve years of work with close to 2,000 beginning teachers have taught the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project [SCNTP] that thoughtfully-designed teacher induction programs can support the development of novice teachers as well as the veteran teachers who support them. The result is nothing less than teacher quality squared.

Guiding and supporting new colleagues offers veteran teachers a new professional role in which they can use their exceptional talents as teachers of teachers. Our SCNTP experience demonstrates that this new role leads to remarkable changes in the practice and attitudes of these seasoned teachers. Not only are they reinvigorated and renewed, but classroom teachers learn to see themselves as professional leaders with the power and responsibility to impact the educational system.

What does an induction program that simultaneously develops beginners and veterans look like? What do these mentors learn and practice that leads to exceptionally high long-term retention rates, improved teacher quality, and higher student achievement? What does this "new breed" of experienced teacher leaders look like and how are they making a difference?

An Induction Program Focused on Both Support and Development
Since 1988, the SCNTP has been releasing outstanding veteran teachers from classroom responsibilities for two to three years to work full-time with up to fifteen first- and second-year teachers. Called new teacher advisors, these experienced teachers meet weekly with each new teacher for about two hours, before, during, or after school.

In addition, new teachers receive two to three release days for observing other teachers, curriculum planning, reflection, and self-assessment. At a monthly seminar series, new teachers share their dilemmas and successes with peers.

The partnership between the full-time new teacher advisor and the novice teacher, however, is at the heart of the program and fundamental to the program’s success. Together, the novice and the veteran examine the new teacher’s classroom practice, assess areas of strength, and identify focus areas for growth in relationship to the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP).

The advisor regularly collects observation data for collaborative review and analysis, helps the new teacher identify steps toward improving his/her practice, and then helps the new teacher document growth over time by collecting evidence of this development. Together they also examine and analyze student work on a regular basis.

A carefully designed set of tools and structures helps scaffold this process of professional support and assessment that then guides the new teacher’s professional development. Key among these tools is a Collaborative Assessment Log, where the advisor and the new teacher record the weekly successes and challenges as related to the CSTP, develop next steps for the new teacher, and identify the support needed. Both the new teacher and advisor keep a copy of this log.

Essential Features that Make a Difference in Teacher Quality
The Santa Cruz program is grounded in the belief that the better the quality of the mentoring, the better the quality of a new teacher’s classroom instruction. Like good teaching, good mentoring involves complex skills and understandings that are rarely intuitive.

Just as our profession is recognizing more and more that most great teachers are not born but develop over time, so, too, do we believe our experienced teachers need time to develop into great advisors. This is a new role for classroom teachers, and it requires careful training, ongoing support, and regular opportunities for them to reflect on and assess their mentoring practice .

We also know that not every outstanding classroom teacher will be a successful mentor. So, to begin with, we carefully select new teacher advisors who are not only models of effective practice, but who:

· Have strong interpersonal skills;
· Have credibility with peers and administrators;
· Demonstrate curiosity and an eagerness to learn;
· Show respect for multiple perspectives; and
· Demonstrate a commitment to improving the academic achievement of all students, in particular, students of color and English language learners.

Once selected, our advisors receive a half-day orientation to the SCNTP program followed by a two-day foundational training in mentoring, provided by the New Teacher Center @ UCSC. In this "Foundations in Mentoring" training, the new advisors are asked to envision the quality teacher we are committed to developing, to examine the powerful and variable role of mentor/advisor, to understand the fundamental importance of a trusting relationship with each new teacher, to identify new teacher needs, and to use assessment data to guide the support process. We have found that when skilled veteran teachers come out of the classroom, they are often unable to deconstruct what they do well. Thus, initial training includes an introduction to the CSTP, opportunities to identify what the standards might look like in classroom practice, and ways to use standards to set professional growth goals.

Subsequent staff development includes two days of coaching and observation skills training where advisors have additional opportunities to practice with video-tapes as they identify evidence of the CSTP in practice. They are introduced to and have a chance to practice mentoring language, a variety of observation tools, and ways to present data and give feedback that promote new teacher learning and self-assessment. Through it all, advisors are reminded that they are first and foremost teachers of teachers whose role is to help the new teachers move their classroom practice forward.

Since our mentors also facilitate the monthly seminars for our beginning teachers, they receive training in planning and designing staff development. Topics include adult learning theory, assessing the audience, setting appropriate outcomes, organizing the content, and using a repertoire of strategies that actively engage participants. Both of these trainings are provided by the New Teacher Center @ UCSC.

Just as classroom teachers benefit from having communities of peers in which to discuss and learn about their practice, so do our advisors need regular, ongoing opportunities to learn from and with their fellow advisors. A full-time release model of mentoring such as the SCNTP program enables us to do just that. Our advisors focus exclusively on the needs of their new colleagues and are also available to join other advisors from across the county-wide SCNTP consortium to participate in Friday morning staff development meetings. These meetings provide a forum for new learning, problem-solving, and exploring current issues.

We use this time to review project procedures and our assessment tools and their use. We practice observation skills by using videotaped lessons of beginning teachers. We review and develop our advisors’ familiarity with the CSTP not just as a lens on good teaching, but as a way to keep all eyes focused on improving new teachers’ classroom instruction. Advisors share and analyze data of their new teachers’ developing practice and then strategize how best to support the particular teacher’s continued growth. Sometimes we focus on developing our knowledge of subject matter or content area standards, or building our expertise in the area of literacy instruction, a priority our program has elected to set for ourselves, K-12. Together we read articles, share concerns, practice facilitation and presentation skills, and think about what it means to be a mentor of new teachers in our schools.

We have also learned that just as our new colleagues benefit from the support of an experienced peer, so, too, do our advisors. Beginning mentors are paired with experienced colleagues who model effective support and assessment practices. Together, mentors set professional learning goals, just as do the new teachers they support, and then chart their progress over the course of the year. Partners regularly shadow and coach one another to develop the highest caliber of practice possible.So what does this new role for veteran teachers signify for our profession, and how can it make a difference?

A New Role for the Profession: Teachers Teaching Teachers
Providing support to novice teachers is parallel to classroom teaching. By temporarily stepping out of their own classrooms of children into the classrooms of twelve to fifteen novices, these exceptional veteran teachers impact the quality of instruction for hundreds of children.
This new role acknowledges the significant professional knowledge residing in classrooms. Who better can identify the challenges and the complexities of teaching in today’s schools than those who are intimately connected with those classrooms and those students? Our profession needs leadership roles for teachers that capitalize upon the sophisticated expertise involved in being an outstanding classroom teacher. Additionally, advising new teachers is a powerful form of professional development that furthers these advisors’ knowledge of pedagogy and helps them take apart what they know, ultimately producing ever more capable teachers.

When mentors rotate back into the classroom they do so with a new vision of teacher as learner and a new set of professional norms. Few of us in education have lived in school cultures that demand collaboration, foster inquiry into teaching practice, and ask us systematically to collect and review data of our professional practice, but these are the norms that show student learning and effective instruction at the heart of our professional development.

New and legitimate leadership roles for teachers can change the nature of our profession and the fabric of our educational systems. Releasing veteran teachers full-time from classroom duties for the express purpose of inducting new colleagues into the profession represents a significant commitment both to our teachers and to our students. It is a powerful statement about what matters most in our schools — "a caring, competent, and qualified teacher for every child." Thoughtfully designed induction programs honor and capitalize upon the expertise and knowledge of our most talented veterans by creating systems that foster ambitious levels of mentoring in support of new teacher practice. It is teacher quality squared.


http://www.newteachercenter.org/article6.php

posted by AcrosticGuy @ 7:29 PM