HD33 - One-Year Internship for First Year Teachers


Executive Summary:
Teaching is the only profession where novices are expected to perform with the same expertise as twenty-five year veterans. (Getting Real and Getting Smart, pp. 12-13)

The 1998 General Assembly approved House Joint Resolution 117 (HJR 117) “requesting the Board of Education to study the feasibility of implementing a one-year internship as the first year of teaching following the completion of a teacher education program.” In response to the requirement that the Board conduct its study in collaboration with professional organizations involved in teacher education, a task force was convened. The task force concluded that a statewide teacher induction program would be feasible to support the approximately 4,000 new teachers employed annually in Virginia. The task force members focused their discussion on the following major issues.

What is a teacher induction program and which teachers will be assisted?

A teacher induction program’s objective is to assist new and beginning teachers as they are inducted into the profession through a clinical, real-world training process. The program helps the new teachers improve their skills by relying on the expertise of a more experienced mentor. Such a program links new teachers with experienced or mentor teachers who provide ongoing support through observing, modeling, sharing ideas and skills, and recommending materials for further study or classroom use in teaching the grade-level curriculum.

The Board of Education took an important step to raise the expectations for all students in Virginia public schools by adopting the Virginia Standards of Learning, which set reasonable expectations for what teachers need to teach and students need to learn. These increased expectations of students compelled the Board of Education to align the licensure regulations for school personnel with the Standards of Learning. Higher standards and greater accountability have increased the demands to assure that all students are taught by qualified, competent, and committed teachers. An induction program provides day-to-day support and assistance as the teacher gains expertise and assumes more responsibility in the classroom.

Virginia employs about 4,000 beginning teachers each year who would be assisted by an induction program. The challenge is retaining our best and brightest teachers in the profession. Some reports reveal that dropout rates for beginning teachers within the first five years of teaching are alarmingly high. This circumstance is exacerbated by the fact that the new teachers who leave first are often the most academically talented. Both beginning teachers and the veterans with whom they work believe that they benefit significantly from the guidance and support systematic teacher induction programs provide. This is one of the most important reasons for investing in such a program.

Who are mentor teachers and what are their roles in a teacher induction program?

The effectiveness of any teacher induction program relies on the expertise and credibility of the mentor teacher. The process of selecting mentor teachers must be rigorous and credible, a system that teachers believe results in the selection of highly experienced, expert teachers.

Teacher induction programs must have clear criteria that, at a minimum, require
mentors to:

• have taught successfully, with a continuing contract, for a specified number of years;
• be recognized as outstanding classroom teachers;
• demonstrate deep knowledge of the discipline(s) they teach;
• possess a repertoire of effective classroom management strategies and instructional techniques;
• have strong verbal skills, both orally and in writing;
• have the ability to work cooperatively and effectively with others; and
• have had training to serve in the role of mentor teacher.

Training of mentor teachers not only orients them fully to the program, its policies, and guidelines but also addresses and enhances skills regarding working with adults, documenting observations, deepening subject matter knowledge, and assuring up-to-date, research-based information on instruction and learning. Such training is usually cooperatively arranged between an institution of higher education and local school division officials.

Once trained, the mentor teacher’s duties vary according to the demands of the program. They may include such responsibilities as:

• determining the eligibility of beginning teachers for the program;
• helping to establish specific performance goals for participating teachers;
• helping to plan programs of intervention for participating teachers;
• observing and assessing the beginning teacher’s performance;
• providing documentation on intervention and evaluation of teachers;
• making recommendations to the principal and other central office personnel regarding the participating teachers’ performance; and
• making recommendations whether to declare intervention a success and cease work with a participating teacher or to continue the intervention process for a second year of the three-year probationary period.

What does a teacher induction program cost?

Teacher induction programs are costly, but the programs more than pay for themselves in regard to improved instruction, greater retention of new and beginning teachers, and higher standards for continuing employment of new teachers. The proposed budget for a statewide teacher induction program is based on the participation of approximately 4,000 new teachers. In administering this program, funding would be required for items such as stipends for mentors and clinical faculty; training mentors and clinical faculty; program evaluation; release time of teachers; and administrative costs (including development and printing of training materials).