Chicago revamps mentoring for new teachers Posted By Rebecca Harris On Monday, January 4, 2010
In Teachers Following some start-up delays, the district has launched its latest new-teacher mentoring program in some 330 new schools—the third time in recent years that CPS has revamped teacher induction in a bid to raise teacher quality and improve retention.

The Chicago New Teacher Center is the district’s most ambitious effort to date and marks the first time CPS has turned to an outside organization—the highly regarded New Teacher Center, a nonprofit organization that began at the University of California in Santa Cruz—for mentoring and induction. The $3.5 million price tag (for about 1,000 teachers this year, or $3,500 per teacher) is far higher than for previous programs, including the most recent GOLDEN mentoring program and its predecessor, MINT.

The money, however, will provide a more extensive array of services, including a two-day summer orientation, coaches, networking with other rookie teachers and professional development events. The program could end up saving money for some schools, says a CPS spokesman: With the GOLDEN program, schools received a stipend to pay for mentoring, but some schools supplemented the payment with their own discretionary funds.

Delays initially cropped up last fall. For one, matching of new teachers and mentors was slowed because schools did not always complete their hiring in time and eligible teachers were not identified right away.

The Center matches every new teacher with a coach, a veteran mentor who works with 15 to 30 teachers at a time. The coaches observe and meet with the veteran about three times a month during the school year, and the mentors provide support in areas ranging from content knowledge to lesson planning and classroom management strategies.

Ideally, the matches would be made before the start of the school year, says David Osta, the Center’s director of policy and communications. But this year, that did not happen. “Hiring tends to be a bit of a rolling process in Chicago,” Osta says. “It doesn’t happen as smoothly and stepwise as you’d always hope.”

The biggest challenge was identifying first- and second-year teachers, who are eligible for the program, says CPS spokesman Malon Edwards. A new tool that allows principals and district administrators to track the tenure progress of probationary teachers will make the process easier in the future, he says.

This year, coaches worked with principals to find first- and second-year teachers who were not identified in the district’s human resources database, Osta says. The group had to screen out those who appeared to be new, but actually had experience teaching in a private school or another state. Chicago New Teacher Center staff also examined teachers’ graduation dates, looking for new hires who might have fallen through the cracks.

“It’s always a challenge to locate first- and second-year teachers. The data system isn’t exactly designed for that,” Osta says. “Where it is not clear, we have to talk to them and find out a bit more about their background and experience.”

Spurring research, improving school climate

The Center, which first debuted in CPS in 2006, is in a total of 375 schools this year. It is
optional for schools affiliated with other support programs, including the Academy for Urban School Leadership, the Teacher Advancement Program, and Fresh Start. (Just three schools opted out: Disney II Magnet School in Irving Park, Northside College Prep in North Park, and Fenger High School in Roseland.)

To smooth the transition from GOLDEN, coaches are tailoring their practice to each principal’s goals, Osta says. “A lot of principals previously did not know us,” he says. “We don’t want to be seen as pushing into their building.”

Carl Dasko, the principal of Bateman Elementary School in Irving Park, says his new teachers started to meet with their coaches in late October. The program’s one weakness, Dasko notes, is the lack of daily interaction with a mentor in the building—something that was provided by GOLDEN.

“We informally hook them up with a teacher who can be a go-to person, but that’s not nearly as structured as before,” Dasko says.

John Price, the principal of Audubon Elementary School in North Center, says teachers are glad to work with a full-time coach who doesn’t report to the same principal they do.
“One of the realities was that teachers have their own kids. (Mentoring) was something that got added on when possible,” Price says.

Dasko and Price both believe the New Teacher Center’s work needs more evaluation.
“If the teachers are reporting that it’s not helpful or supportive, then I’m going to try to advocate for something (based) here in the school itself,” Price says.

The Consortium on Chicago School Research will spend the next year analyzing the group’s coaching activities. A study slated to be released in the fall will describe the coaches’ work and the practice of the beginning teachers, laying the groundwork for possible evaluation and impact studies in the future.

A report  that the Consortium released this August – “The Schools Teachers Leave: Teacher Mobility in Chicago Public Schools” – found that schools with high levels of parent involvement, a collaborative work environment, and strong principal leadership have lower rates of teacher turnover.

In an effort to address two of those factors, the Center’s work includes training on teacher-parent relationships and support for principals whose schools have a high number of new teachers, Osta notes.

“We found that report to be very insightful,” he says. “It was a case of research confirming what we’d experienced in the field.”




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