Sink or Swim
By Ellen Moir

Imagine putting new hires alone in an office, isolated from co-workers, giving them a difficult job to do, and then expecting that they perform at the same level as the experienced colleague next door. That is hardly a formula for success, but that is exactly what we do with many new teachers.

Our education system's shocking indifference to the fate of its newest members is an embarrassment.

As schools opened last fall, thousands of beginning teachers receive a little more than a student roster and a classroom key. Usually fresh out of college and in their first job, these novices are often subjected to a hazing ritual that involves placing them in the most difficult jobs in hardest-to-staff schools. They work long hours, planning lessons and learning complex curriculum requirements in isolation. They struggle to manage thirty students, each with individual needs and abilities.

It's a sink-or-swim experience. With little support, it's no wonder that about 40 percent of the new teachers leave the profession within four years.

We are paying a high price for not supporting our beginning teachers. School districts, especially urban ones, spend significant sums to recruit high-quality teachers. With each new school year, a staffing crisis looms. Failure to invest in the new teachers who are hired means that the next year the whole cycle starts again as burned-out and disillusioned new teachers flee the classroom for better salaries and working conditions. Teaching positions at our neediest schools continue to be a revolving door.

Our failure to invest in teacher induction and retention is counterproductive and short-sighted. A recent report showed that the cost of teacher turnover has reached $5 billion a year. This figure does not even begin to account for the toll on schools and students whose teachers are constantly under stress and in flux. With the growing number of new teachers needed to replace baby-boomer retirees, we have to start doing a better job now.

Many school districts have induction programs for new teachers, but too often these only deal with logistics, or assign a new teacher a "buddy" to provide emotional support for life in the trenches. What new teachers really need is the guidance of successful, experienced teachers trained to mentor. And both mentors and new teachers need time off from other duties to work together to improve teaching. Effective mentoring requires mentors to work with new teachers in their classrooms, and base their support on the realities of the challenges new teachers face. Since experienced teachers more quickly grasp the needs of a classroom, they can provide options for solving student and curriculum challenges. They can also help novices make better and faster decisions about lesson plans, teaching strategies, and assessment. By giving new teachers this instructional support from the start, new teachers focus less on day-to-day survival and more on instruction. They become more confident and more skilled.

New teacher support programs improve retention and teaching simultaneously.

Students benefit from the enthusiasm of new teachers and the experience of senior teachers. New teachers become more effective teachers faster. Parents appreciate that their children are getting a better education. With comprehensive mentoring and support, new teachers are more likely to stay on the job. Our program, the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project, one of California 's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Programs, is working with 900 new K-12 teachers in thirty-one school districts in our region. Two studies have shown that after six years the retention rate for our new teachers is 88 percent!

Another benefit is that this new mentor role reinvigorates veteran teachers. The training they receive to be mentors and the ability to share their expertise gives them a mid-career boost. Their knowledge and skills contribute to the successful entry of a new generation of teachers—an important professional legacy. They return to the classroom as refreshed and even better teachers, or find other avenues to share their new expertise.

School districts benefit from higher quality teaching, better retention, and faster gains in student achievement. Money poured into recruitment isn't lost as new teachers improve more rapidly and return next year.

We know that quality teaching is the key to student achievement. Yet it is unrealistic to expect the novice to enter teaching with all the skills and knowledge of the ten-or twenty-year veteran. Quality mentoring is essential in classrooms with beginning teachers.

Ellen Moir is the Executive Director of the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a national resource for new teacher induction programs. In 2003, she received the California Council on Teacher Education Distinguished Educator Award.

In addition, the National Center for Alternative Certification works with the New Teacher Center to conduct regional workshops on mentoring. Call 1-866-778-2784 to find out when and where workshops will be available in 2006.