Tapping the Potential - Alliance for Excellent Education

TA P P I N G T H E P O T E N T I A L : R E TA I N I N G A N D D E V E L O P I N G H I G H - Q U A L I T Y N E W T E A C H E R Swell as encourage higher-quality teaching.In this way, mentoring becomes atype of career ladder that promotes professionalgrowth.Still other induction programs releasetheir mentors from some or all of theirnormal workload to observe and assessteachers, making some mentors full-timecoaches. 73 Arguably, release time is essentialto successful induction because itgives mentors time and space to supportand assess novice teachers.Through mentoring, comprehensiveinduction builds the teaching capacity ofexisting teachers, who then become leadersin the profession. It should be no surprisethat mentors report using practices thatimprove student achievement, and thatthey experience greater job satisfaction.It Takes a Village: CommonPlanning Time and CollaborationIf it takes a village to raise children, itfollows that a community of teachers canmore effectively instruct them than isolatedindividuals. 74 Teachers who plantogether stay in teaching longer, and theybecome a community of professionals, allof whom are responsible for studentlearning. As Joellen Killion at theNational Staff Development Council putsit, “When opportunities for collaborationare present in a school’s culture, teachersare typically more satisfied with theirwork, more actively involved in theschools, and work more productivelytoward school goals.” 75Collaboration offsets the isolationmany teachers feel early in their careers,and it fosters a collegial work environmentso that teaching becomes a cultureof cooperation and continuous learning.The best collaboration includes teachersand leaders across all experience levels soall teachers can learn from one another.Common planning time is not an extrafaculty meeting or a forum to discuss currentevents; it should be structured collaborationthat helps teachers connect whatand how they teach to student achievement.Every teacher, particularly a beginningone, needs time with other teachersto examine how her or his own teachingleads to student learning.By itself, time set aside for planningwill not improve student performance.Time must be accompanied by strategiesand supports that help teachers reflect ontheir practice. Thus, collaboration is asmuch a change in school culture as a wayto organize meetings.Groups of teachers collectively focusedon improving instruction can improvestudent achievement. Researchers lookingat Cincinnati schools found that, aftercontrolling for personal background, studentstaught by teachers who were part ofstructured common planning sessions—where school leaders provided them timeand strategies to reflect on teaching andstudent achievement—learned more. 76The difference in student outcomes wasthe difference in teacher collaboration.Collaborative strategies that improveinstruction may include:• Developing lesson plans and curriculum.Because new teachers are less experiencedthey need more time to developlesson plans and classroom curriculum.David Kauffman, in a 2002report for the Harvard Project on theNext Generation of Teachers, foundthat many beginning teachers feel“lost at sea” and “overwhelmed by theresponsibility and demands of designingcurriculum and planning daily lessons.”New teachers need help deter-Common planning time isnot an extra facultymeeting or a forum todiscuss current events; itshould be structuredcollaboration that helpsteachers connect whatand how they teach tostudent achievement.15