Julie H. Rucker
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Mentoring Assignment
Establishing a Mentoring Program
As Assistant Principal of Stephen Covey High School , I have been given the task of creating a plan for a mentoring program to be used with teachers new to the school system. According to research studies, up to 40% of teachers leave the profession within the first seven years, and the cost of replacing teachers could be as much as 25% of the teacher's salary (Mills, Moore, & Keane 2001; Norton 1999). Last year, our school had a 32% teacher turnover rate; therefore, teacher retention is a serious concern for the administration. We have decided to implement a mentoring program and have included this in our school improvement plan.
The first step toward implementing the program is to form a pool of teachers who are willing to serve as mentors for new teachers to the school. These mentors would ideally have been working in the field for eight or more years, though consideration will be given to teachers with less experience who are willing to work in this capacity and would fit well into the program. These mentor teachers would undergo a two-day mentoring workshop led by school administration during the summer to introduce them to the needs of new teachers as well as their responsibilities as a mentor teacher. Teachers will receive a $150 stipend for attending the summer workshop as well as earn one PLU credit. At the workshop, mentor teachers will be divided into groups and given the task of creating a one-hour presentation on a topic of importance for new teachers that they will present later during the school year at after-school mentoring workshops.
An online component will be included in the program, and teachers would be trained to access an online computer network within the school's computer system designed to be used only by mentor teachers, administrators, and new teachers. This will be a place online where teachers can post comments, ask questions, seek advice, praise colleagues, and continue to keep an open line of communication throughout the work week. Teachers are always stretched for time; instead of requiring mentors and teachers to meet weekly, they would be required to interact through the online network via email or in an open online conference folder. Teachers new to the system would be required to participate in the online network for their first three years and may continue to participate on a voluntary basis after that.
As part of the mentoring program, new teachers and their mentor teachers would be paired according to the subject matter they teach if at all possible. Mentor teachers would be in touch daily with new teachers during the critical first week of school. Thereafter, they will remain in weekly contact via online communications and will be expected to have face-to-face contact at least twice each month during the first semester of school. After the first grading period, mentor teachers and new teachers will have an evening retreat, paid by administration, at an off-campus, casual location where they will have a nice dinner and then a “dessert & coffee conference” to discuss issues, difficulties, concerns, and successes during the first quarter of the school year.
After-school mentoring workshops will be offered new teachers every six weeks for one hour after school on topics such as classroom management, teaching strategies, assessing students, promoting student literacy in their subject area, differentiation, and other workshops deemed important by the school's needs assessment as well as the mentor teachers themselves. Administrators and mentor teachers will be the leaders of the workshops (created during the summer session), but a conversational component in the workshops will be encouraged so that new teachers and mentors can continue a dialog about issues important to student learning and teacher learning. Teachers attending workshops, both new and mentor, will earn PLU credit for on-site professional learning. At the end of each workshop, all teachers will be asked to complete a short survey to indicate the helpfulness of the workshops as well as what should be included the next time.
After a new teacher's first year, they would be required to continue participating in the online conferences but would not be required to meet monthly with their mentor teachers. Instead, the goal of the first year experience is to move the new teachers to be more independent and not dependent on the mentor teacher, though that mentor teacher will remain a mentor for the new teacher's first three years. An administrator will meet individually with each new teacher for an assessment interview about the mentoring process at the end of the teacher's first year. If a teacher were to leave after that first year, an administrator would conduct an exit interview, within which she would address the mentoring experience for the new teacher.
References
Mills, H., Moore, D., & Keane, W. G. (2001). Addressing the teacher shortage: A study
of successful mentoring programs in Oakland County , Michigan . The Clearing
House , 74 (3), 124-126.
Norton, M. S. (1999). Teacher retention: Reducing costly teacher turnover.
Contemporary Education , 70 (3) 52-55.