Format

Individual Presentation

Location

Scarbrough 2

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance

This presentation relates to the Academic Achievement and School Leadership strand as it emphasizes the need to develop and support the skills of beginning teachers in the field. An unfortunate trend has developed of beginning teachers entering the profession and leaving soon after only to be replaced with another novice. This constant cycle impacts student academic achievement and school leadership, as teacher development and effectiveness improve with experience. This experience is lost when the attrition of beginning teachers remains constant within schools and districts. Designing and maintaining an induction program that focuses on mentoring and coaching beginning teachers provides both veteran and novice teachers an opportunity to collaborate and professionally grow together.

Brief Program Description

This session is designed to provide teachers, teacher leaders, principals, and support staff relevant research and best practices for incorporating induction support to novice teachers who have been placed in low-performing schools. This interactive session will include participant discussion on the characteristics of beginning teachers, and how mentoring and coaching can significantly impact their retention and effectiveness.

Summary

This session will present research pertaining to new teacher support and induction programs. While induction programs have become a stable within schools and districts, there has been an attitude in the teaching profession in which beginning teachers either “sink or swim.” This attitude is specifically noted within schools that are deemed “low-performing” with a high population of at-risk students. Novice teachers are often placed in “high-needs” schools, with little to know experience or knowledge of the population they serve. As a result, beginning teachers often begin to struggle and resort to survival techniques instead of best teaching practices. This presentation will provide school leaders an opportunity to learn and discuss how to best support beginning teachers. By examining the characteristics of beginning teachers, and common phases that are typical throughout a school year, school and teacher leaders can provide support in the form of mentoring and coaching throughout the year. Participants will learn and discuss how mentoring and coaching can impact the retention, self efficacy, and effectiveness of novice teachers, and how beginning teachers need consistent and specific professional development that is best provided in their own classroom. Research articles will be provided and participants will take home best practices in mentoring and coaching beginning teachers. In addition, participants will be provided an opportunity to practice coaching and mentoring strategies to be used within their school and/or district.

Evidence

While beginning teachers have become the most common teachers in public schools today, they are also less likely to remain in the profession with 50% of new teachers leaving within their first five years (Ingersoll, 2012). As a result, the attrition rates of first-year teachers have increased about 33% in the past two decades (Ingersoll, 2012). Notably, low performing and high-needs schools experience higher rates of new teacher turnover causing at-risk students being disproportionately served by less experienced teachers than their high-performing, low-poverty counterparts (Ingersoll, 2012). In addition to the financial cost of attrition, the loss of beginning teachers impacts student success. Research suggests that it takes a beginning teachers three to four years to reach effective proficiency, and a teacher’s effectiveness at improving their student’s test scores increases significantly throughout their first three years in the classroom (Henry, Fortner, & Bastian, 2012; Feiman-Nemser, 2003). To offset the new teacher turnover rate, districts around the nation have designed and implemented induction programs to provide necessary support to those who enter the teaching profession. Using a series of advanced statistical analyses, researchers (Ingersoll, 2012; Smith & Ingersoll, 2004) found a link between beginning teacher’s participation in induction programs and their retention within the profession. Cohen and Fuller (2006) and Kelley (2004) also found a positive relationship between new teacher support and retention. Fletcher, Strong, and Villar (2008) investigated how variations in new teacher support programs are related to changes in student achievement. Results indicated that the most intensive induction programs had greater gains in reading, and teachers in intensive programs showed class gains equal to those of experienced teachers in the same district. However, the access to induction programs remains inequitable, with beginning teachers in schools having the highest concentrations of poor and minority students reporting lower participation rates in induction and mentoring (Johnson, Kardos, Kauffman, Liu, & Donaldson, 2004; Wei, Darling-Hammond, & Adamson, 2010). With the knowledge that teachers new to the profession are more frequently placed in low-performing schools (Ingersoll, 2012), are less effective in boosting student learning compared to more experienced teachers (Carroll & Foster, 2010; Raymond Fletcher & Luque, 2001; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2001) and are less likely to receive induction support (Johnson, Kardos, Kauffman, Liu, & Donaldson, 2004; Wei, Darling-Hammond, & Adamson, 2010), it is not surprising to see achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes. Best practices in teacher induction are critical. This session will focus on research pertaining to how induction programs have impacted teacher retention, self-efficacy, and effectiveness. In addition, participants will discuss the common characteristics of beginning teachers, mentors, and coaches. References Carroll, T., & Foster, E. (2010). Who will teach? Experience matters. Washington, DC: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. Cohen, B., & Fuller, E. (2006). Effects of mentoring and induction on beginning teacher retention. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2003). What new teachers need to learn. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 25-29. Fletcher, S. H., Strong, M., & Villar, A. (2008). An investigation of the effects of the variations in mentor-based induction on the performance of students in California. Teachers College Record, 110, 2271-2289. Henry, G. T., Fortner, C. K., & Bastian, K. C. (2012). The effects of experience and attrition for novice high school science and mathematics teachers. Science, 335, 1118-1121. Ingersoll, R. M. (2012). Beginning teacher induction: What the data tell us. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(8), 47. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/ctpmail/PDFs/Shortage-RI-09-2003.pdf Johnson, S. M., Kardos, S. M., Kauffman, D., Liu, E., & Donaldson, M. L. (2004). The support gap: New teachers early experiences in high-income and low-income schools. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 12(61), 1-24. Kelley, L. (2004). Why induction matters. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(5), 438-448. Rivkin, S., Hanushek, E., & Kain, J. (2001). Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Working Paper Number 6691. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Raymond, M., Fletcher, S. H., & Luque, J. (2001). Teach for America: An evaluation of teacher differences and student outcomes in Houston, Texas. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on Education Outcomes. Smith, T., & Ingersoll, R. (2004). What are the effects of induction and mentoring on beginning teacher turnover? American Educational Research Journal, 41(3), 681-714. Wei, R., Darling-Hammond, L., & Adamson, F. (2010). Professional development in the United States: Trends and challenges. Phase II of a Three-Phase Study. Executive Summary. National Staff Development. Retrieved from http://www.learningforward.org/docs/pdf/nsdcstudytechnicalreport2010.pdf?sfvrsn=0

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Adam J. Myers began his career as middle school language arts teacher in 2002. Throughout his eleven years in the classroom, Dr. Myers continued his education earning a MA in Middle Grades Education from Winthrop University, and an Ed.D in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina. He is also Nationally Board Certified, and has worked as a New Teacher Support Coach within the NC New Teacher Support Program. Dr. Myers currently works in the College of Education at LaGrange College in LaGrange, GA. His research interest include induction, beginning teacher support, year-round student teaching, and pre-service learning.

Keyword Descriptors

Induction, Beginning teachers, Mentoring, Coaching, Retention of beginning teachers

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

3-2-2015 10:30 AM

End Date

3-2-2015 11:45 AM

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Mar 2nd, 10:30 AM Mar 2nd, 11:45 AM

Supporting the Needs of At-Risk Beginning Teachers

Scarbrough 2

This session is designed to provide teachers, teacher leaders, principals, and support staff relevant research and best practices for incorporating induction support to novice teachers who have been placed in low-performing schools. This interactive session will include participant discussion on the characteristics of beginning teachers, and how mentoring and coaching can significantly impact their retention and effectiveness.