Teachers Are the Center of Education: - New Teacher Center

New Teacher Center
The New Teacher Center (NTC) is dedicated to improving student learning by accelerating the
effectiveness of new teachers. By offering extensive and targeted support to new teachers
through carefully crafted mentoring programs of professional development, NTC works to
improve the overall effectiveness of the teaching profession and to retain and sustain great
teachers, especially in the country’s hardest-to-serve schools. Additionally, NTC works to
influence key policy decisions related to new teacher support at the state and federal levels
through consultation to policymakers, research-based policy briefs, and technical assistance to
state and district induction policy leaders. With an $18 million annual budget, NTC operates in 35
states and with more than 200 public school districts, supporting more than 26,000 new teachers
and 6,300 mentors. Through NTC’s online mentoring program, the organization reaches teachers
in all 50 states.
NTC addresses the needs of new teachers by providing an intensive mentoring (“induction”)
model for first- and second-year teachers. NTC’s induction model utilizes carefully selected,
prepared and well-supported mentors who provide intensive instructional support to beginning
teachers throughout their initial years in the classroom. NTC’s approach enables experienced
teachers to become effective mentors by providing them with two critical elements:
1. Mentor professional development where experienced and effective teachers learn
and refine mentoring skills, problem-solve issues of mentoring, refine their own set of
classroom practice skills, and develop leadership capacity.
2. Tools and assessments that equip mentors with the tactical resources that help them
collaborate and guide new teachers on the path toward excellent outcomes.
When tightly coupled with ongoing opportunities for mentor training and collaboration, these
elements provide a framework for new teacher induction work that is every bit as challenging,
results-driven and invigorating for the mentors as it is for new teachers.
Mentoring provides new teachers with direct access to customized professional development,
which ultimately improves new teachers’ practice. However, mentors benefit significantly
from this opportunity as well. Mentors who return to the classroom after working with new
teachers for several years comment on the positive impact that mentoring has made in their
own instruction and pedagogical knowledge. For others, mentoring is a pathway to leadership
positions within the district, both in teaching leadership and administrative positions.
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