Missouri Career Education Mentoring Program

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Missouri Career Education Mentoring Program

• Presented by
• Dennis D. Harden, Ed.D.
• Coordinator, Career Education
• Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
  Education
• Larae Watkins, Ph.D.
• Coordinator, Research and Curriculum
• Missouri Center for Career Education

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We Need to Help Teachers Succeed because

• Currently, more than half of new teachers leave
  the profession in their first five years.
• New teachers who participate in induction
  programs are nearly twice as likely to stay in
  the professional as those who do not.
• Research indicates a critical predicator of
  student success is teacher quality.
• By the end of the decade, the U.S. will need two
  million new teachers.
• Source Beginning Now Resources for Organizers
  of Beginning Teachers

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A Quick View of New Teachers

• Almost two thirds are younger than 27
• More than one fourth of them are not fully
  certified
• 42 have just completed college and have never
  taught
• 34 are former teachers who are coming back to
  the profession
• The majority are single and in debt.
• Source Beginning Now Resources for Organizers
  of Beginning Teachers

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The Financial Benefits of Mentoring

• Question
• What is the cost to the district when a new
  teacher leaves teaching or is not rehired?
• Answer
• The answer is found in answering more questions.

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What are the districts costs

• For new teacher recruitment, especially for
  recruiting the kind of diverse staff a great
  district wants?
• For new teacher orientation and training during
  the first year or two?
• In student learning during the year or two a new
  teacher is learning to teach?

• For the loss of instruction continuity when new
  teachers leave or are not rehired because they
  are not successful?
• For administrator time spent orienting,
  evaluating, coaching, and supporting new teachers
  who are not retrained?
• When struggling novice teachers must focus more
  on their own needs, than those of the students?

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Consider this

• Every teacher who leaves the profession during
  the first three years likely costs taxpayers in
  excess of 50,000 (Leslie Huling and Virginia
  Resta, Southwest State Texas University). This
  is based on an industry standard of calculating
  2.5 times the employees initial salary in
  recruitment and personnel expenditures and lost
  productivity.
• Source Effective Teaching by Harry and
  Rosemary Wong

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In Missouri

• According to Educator Certification, possessors
  of an initial professional certificate shall
  participate in a mentoring program approved and
  provided by the district for a minimum of two
  years.
• Flexibility is built in that allows educators to
  participate in other mentoring programs as
  approved by the district.
• Mentoring requirement includes teachers,
  administrators and all other certificate holders.

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Career Education Mentoring Program

• Started during the 2003-04 school year.
• Included all career education program areas.
• Mentor training provided at MoACTE Summer
  Conference.
• Fall inservice for all mentors and proteges
• Program modeled after Marketing and Cooperative
  Education initiative.
• Facilitated by the Missouri Center for Career
  Education.
• Added K-12/9-12 Guidance Counselors during
  2004-05 school year.

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The Career Education Mentoring Program
Complements In-district Mentoring by

• Providing an outstanding teacher in the same
  content area and specific courses to serve as a
  mentor.
• Allowing each teacher in a program to focus on
  the specific courses taught.
• Assisting with and addressing content-specific
  issues related to alternative certification.
• Bringing new ideas and resources into a program
  and is less threatening since the mentor is from
  a different school.

• Providing additional help for a new teacher even
  though the in-district mentor may be in the same
  content area program.
• Avoiding any potential personality conflicts with
  fellow teachers and protecting the self-respect
  and confidence of the new teacher.
• Creating a partnership with the in-district
  mentor, to ensure thorough coverage of district
  as well as content-specific policies and
  procedures.

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How does it work?

• A mailing goes to districts in the spring
  requesting the number and type of new career
  education teachers expected for the upcoming
  school year.
• Follow up with an application for protege to
  complete and send back to DESE. Includes
  district administrator signature.
• DESE program staff make mentor/protégé
  assignments/matches.
• Mentor training at MoACTE Summer Conference.
• Second year mentoring activities completed at
  MoACTE Summer Conference.
• Content experts for each program area that serve
  as the point person for questions by the mentor
  and/or protégé.

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How does it work? (continued)

• Fall inservice meeting with all first year
  mentor/protégé teams.
• Mid year meetings held for first year and second
  year mentor/protégé teams by program area.
• Mentor/protégé school visits completed during the
  year.
• Assignments completed by protege and verified by
  mentor.

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How does it work? (Continued)

• Assignments include
• Individual mentoring plan
• Structured Experiences I and II
• Mentor/Protégé Visit Report
• Mentoring Program Evaluation

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Other Components

• Funding
• Participating in Administrator Mentoring Program
  for Career Education directors and assistant
  directors.
• Statewide advisory committee
• Mentoring Blog
• Fine tuning of process ongoing
• Research

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Here is what participants have said about the
program

• This is a great program to put new teachers on
  the right track. Having someone to reply to the
  hundreds of questions is very comforting.
• Protégé
• This program is most vital for new teachers in
  one-teacher departments as they have the least
  support and resources at their disposal.
• Mentor

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Here is what participants have said about the
program

• The greatest benefit from my Mentoring
  experience is that a chain of support has been
  built.
• Protégé
• As a mentor, I thought it was particularly
  beneficial in that it gave me an awareness of my
  need for continued growth. The programs
  organized experiences are appropriate and
  helpful.
• Mentor

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Is It Working?

• Data is needed to answer this question.
• A longitudinal database is under development for
  long-term tracking of program participants.
• Preliminary analysis of initial data show that
  the quick answer is YES!

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What we are tracking

• Mentoring Program Completion tied to
• Missouri Teacher Certification Database
• Types of certifications held
• Missouri Core Data
• Teaching assignments what, where, during which
  years

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Preliminary findings
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Preliminary findings
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Things we plan to add to the data collection and
analysis

• Comparing to the retention of new career
  education teachers who do not participate in the
  statewide program
• Reviewing retention of program participants at 5,
  7 and 10 years from the start of their program
• Reviewing retention by program area
• Qualitative determination of precipitating
  factors that influenced participants decision to
  stay in or leave teaching

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For more information, contact

• Missouri Center for Career Education
• http//missouricareereducation.org/pd/mentoring/in
  dex.html
• or
• Dennis D. Harden, Ed.D.
• Coordinator
• Career Education
• Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
• Dennis.Harden_at_dese.mo.gov
• [phone]
• or
• Larae Watkins, Ph.D.
• Coordinator, Research and Curriculum
• Missouri Center for Career Education
• lwatkins_at_ucmo.edu