The Importance of a Good Start:
Birmingham's TEACH Mentoring Program



by Anne C. Lewis

Most teachers remember their first year of teaching as months filled with stress and high anxiety. "To tell you the truth, it was hellish," says one five-year veteran. "I almost didn't make it."

Being a first-year teacher means staying up late every night developing lesson plans-and struggling every day with the realities of classroom discipline and management, subjects that were often glossed over in your teacher education classes. Overwhelmed with trying to move so many students along at the same time, new teachers just hope to get through the year "without messing up," says Susan Buseniehner, a mentor teacher at Snow Rogers Elementary School in Birmingham.

Too often, there's no one to turn to for help. "Experienced teachers are out there being the best teacher they can be. They do care about you, but they just don't have time to help," says Lisa Meeks, a nationally certified elementary teacher in Mobile. When new teachers do find help, it may be the wrong kind, and they learn bad habits that are difficult to change later on.

In Alabama, about 40 percent of new teachers participate in some type of "induction" program during their first few years of teaching. That's well below a disappointing national average of 55 percent. These figures may help explain why more than 30 percent of new teachers nationally leave the profession in the first five years.

So it's refreshing to hear Amy Rose, a kindergarten teacher at Birmingham's Cahaba Heights Elementary School, say unabashedly, "My first year of teaching was a dream!"

A growing number of successful new teachers scattered around the district would agree. Their common bond is that they participated in the district's TEACH program (Teaching Excellence Absolutely Can Happen), conceived a decade ago by Ron Jones, the district's staff development director. A believer in investing in people, Jones realized that the self-concept of teachers is often shaped in the first critical year. "And feedback for new teachers basically is negative," he says. "They get it only when there's a problem."

How TEACH works

Each year, a small cohort (usually 20) of beginning teachers have a mentor who works alongside them for the entire school year. There's a trade-off-the teachers must agree to work at half-pay to help fund the program.

Mentors are experienced teachers who work full-time with three new teachers, preferably two in the same school. The mentors meet together for several days in the summer and visit each others' schools during the year to observe TEACH participants.

Susan Buseniehner mentors two beginning teachers at Snow Rogers. She checks in with them in the mornings and afternoons to answer questions and share ideas drawn from her observations of their classrooms. She also meets with the teachers after school to help plan lessons or show them how to fill out the piles of paperwork that come with today's busy teaching job.

Often Buseniehner will teach a class to allow the teachers time off to observe in other classrooms or schools. She guides them through the maze of personal relationships new teachers must develop, especially with peers and parents. In sum, she does everything she can for her novice colleagues to prevent what she remembers as "a year of confusion, always behind, always in a fog."

Highly motivated future leaders

Working first with Samford University and now with UAB, Ron Jones has fashioned a small but significant program for new teachers willing to work for two years on half-salary. In return, they not only receive daily support from a mentor, they earn a master's degree paid for by the program. TEACH participants also receive extensive technology support, both in their classrooms and in networking with each other through e-mail "lists."

At first, Jones says, the mentor program battled a misconception that it was only for new teachers who were considered weak prospects. As the program matured, it became clear that TEACH graduates were often a cut above the average beginning teacher.

Bonnie Short, a third-grade teacher at Rogers, was apprehensive about the smaller salary, but soon realized "this program is for leaders of the future who have high aspirations." Her principal, Gayle Glenn, says TEACH attracts good teacher candidates "and makes them even better." Teachers willing to sacrifice salary for extra support are usually highly motivated. One of her second-grade teachers was nominated for Teacher of the Year as she was completing the TEACH program.

A statewide model?

The attrition rate of TEACH participants after seven years is about 10%, compared to 40­p;60% for teachers not in the program. Because it is cost-efficient and effective in holding good teachers in the profession, Jones says TEACH could be adapted statewide.

TEACH still has some growing to do in Birmingham. Right now it reaches about one-fourth of the 80­p;90 new teachers hired each year. Ideally, teachers in any school district's mentor program should have "cutting-edge" knowledge about successful teaching practices. And while Jones says Birmingham's mentor teachers have done outstanding work, he believes the district could do more to support their professional growth. One idea Jones supports would be to encourage all mentors to pursue national certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The enthusiasm of all those touched by the program, including the principals who now want only TEACH participants as new teachers, doesn't surprise Jones. "When you have a closely knit group in a school who are looking at better ideas for teaching," he points out, "that's a big plus."

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Also see Linda Darling-Hammond's article:
How Can We Ensure a Caring, Competent, Qualified Teacher for Every Child?