Mentoring new teachers – it’s worth it!
On Monday, WBUR had a story entitled “Looming Teacher Shortage” in which Lawrence and Lowell are praised for having mentoring programs that help retain new teachers. The shortage stems from “record numbers of baby boomers retiring from teaching at the same time as younger teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate.”
When Superintendent Dr. Karla Brooks Baehr first came to town about six years ago, she predicted that a dire teacher shortage would soon be upon us. I recall much scorn from the media about the ’so-called shortage’ but it seems that her foresight is now paying off. She took steps almost immediately to attract and retain highly-qualified teaching professionals. Some of the steps were simple - changing the compendium, the list of job openings in the district, so that instead of coming out once a year in late spring, it comes out in several batches and much earlier. This makes the whole process much more efficient and allows the district to recruit new teachers much earlier, which is important in a competitive hiring environment. Another, bigger, step was to create a teacher-mentor program, a way to allow teachers with more experience to work with, encourage and guide newer recruits. Despite flack about the expense (which was grant-funded for the first three years) from the local media, the School Committee approved the initiative and the program was launched.
It’s no secret that urban teachers have a much harder task than those in the suburbs. The WBUR story notes that Massachusetts cities lose over 50% of their new teachers in the first 3 years- given the investment in hiring and recuriting new teachers, they add that it would be cheaper to give new teachers more mentoring and support.
Lowell’s Mary Sterling, who heads up the program, was quoted in the story:
For us it’s a very sophisticated role where you are partnering an adult learner through a very difficult phase — the beginning of their career, so we provide really strong support for the mentors themselves.
Let’s keep good teachers where they can do the most good!