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Beginning teachers are most susceptible to leaving the profession. With upwards of 10,000 teacher vacancies and a decline in teacher credentials with California, it is urgent for the state — alongside much of the U.S. — to identify ways to mitigate attrition.
But recent research from the California-based Center for Teacher Innovation suggests three effective strategies for supporting new teachers that should be incorporated into all teacher prep and support programs:
Provide dedicated and well-matched coaches. Quality coaches should be at the forefront of beginning teacher support. Numerous studies have indicated that coaching can improve teacher outcomes, including feelings of preparedness and retention. While California requires induction and coaching for all new teachers, many states do not.
When coaching is offered, there are several important considerations. First, there needs to be an intentional match between a coach and the new teacher. Default pairings often rely on aligning teachers and coaches by grade level or subject area. But depending on program size, that may not be possible, so programs could consider additional strategies to strengthen the coaching relationships, like matching similar personality traits or professional skills.
Programs should also invest in activities that promote interaction, such as allowing coaches and teachers time to get to know one another, coaches sharing about their qualifications and experiences, and using time to discuss goals for the new teacher. These opportunities build trust between the teacher and coach; but caution, coaching time does not equate to counseling sessions, and priority should remain on professional growth. This can be done through classroom observations, feedback or a host of other effective coaching strategies. Finally, coaches should meet with their teachers frequently — ideally, weekly — to provide consistent check-ins on progress early in the year, when things are most challenging.
Pay attention to curriculum and technology. There are two design structures of induction often overlooked but vital to the beginning teacher experience. Centrally, programs need to carefully craft what they want their new teachers to learn. New teacher curriculum may reiterate central components of pedagogy (e.g., lesson planning, classroom management), but often more specifically, it includes how to adjust what they learned in their teacher preparation program into their specific classroom context. Whether it is considering creative activities to engage students or being culturally responsive, new teachers need to think about how their training applies to their current environment.
Relatedly, programs should consider how new teachers learn this professional content. While it can be conveyed through coaches, programs should think about how technology, in particular, can enhance or detract from teacher development. Learning management systems such as Canvas, Blackboard and Google can be utilized to distribute what new teachers should learn, but must be user-friendly to reliably provide information.
Connect teacher learning. New teachers need to understand how the scope of their professional learning interactions and activities build upon each another. Teacher preparation programs, the district, professional development workshops, their campus and peers are among just some sources that can provide different, sometimes contrary, professional information. It can be challenging for newcomers to understand whom to listen to and how to balance a variety of information. Thus, induction programs should consider how their work complements other programs. Induction program personnel, teacher educators and district administrators need to work together to ensure that each training successively builds upon one another. Otherwise, persistent separation causes inevitable overlap in learning or, worse, contradictory learning.
Along with the three strategies outlined above, induction programs must be accessible and affordable and enhance beginning teachers’ learning, rather than waste time that they don’t have to spare on activities that generally are not beneficial for them.
Beginning teachers need consistent help and a professional village of people to grow and thrive in the profession. School districts, induction programs and others who assist new teachers must incorporate all three of these evidence-based strategies in their programs to ensure that new teachers can develop and ultimately stay in the profession.
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Andrew Kwok is an assistant professor at Texas A&M University and researches teacher preparation and beginning teacher supports.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
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Nellie 1 month ago1 month ago
About 15 years ago my daughter, who has 5 masters, was hired to teach a class for English. She got a class that needed to be controlled because they did whatever they wanted. Called her names, threw stuff at her, one student was going to kill her, another one sexual harassment. She contacted the principal and he did nothing to help. She went over the reports and found that she was the 7th teacher for … Read More
About 15 years ago my daughter, who has 5 masters, was hired to teach a class for English. She got a class that needed to be controlled because they did whatever they wanted. Called her names, threw stuff at her, one student was going to kill her, another one sexual harassment. She contacted the principal and he did nothing to help. She went over the reports and found that she was the 7th teacher for that class from September to middle of December. No help from VP.
I told her that she should contact the principal and I would hire an attorney. She got help: 17 kids suspended first day. 2 expelled. She speaks Spanish so she can communicate with parents. End of year, kids crying because they didn’t want to go to another class.
Prayers for our schools. Everything that brought kids together has been defunded.
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Andrew Kwok 1 month ago1 month ago
I’m so glad to hear your daughter (and the support you provided) ended up being successful. Being a teacher is challenging by itself; there should be more supports rather than detractors to make that happen. I would not have been successful teaching high school in Oakland Unified if not for the support of others.
K M Flynn 1 month ago1 month ago
Your article doesn’t mention student behavior. Until we begin insisting on civil behavior, set clear boundaries, and reestablish discipline and punishment, teachers will continue to take early retirement and college students will pass on teaching as a career. Are you afraid to bring this topic up? If so, why?
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Andrew Kwok 1 month ago1 month ago
I agree. Classroom management is actually my central research topic of interest and a large reason why I believe new teachers leave the profession. This article suggests additional ways induction programs, most which often focus on foundational topics such as classroom management, can be enhanced to help new teachers. Coaching often revolves around student behavior as well. But you’re right; if this isn’t central to new teachers, they aren’t going to succeed.
Jim 1 month ago1 month ago
It might be helpful to understand why teachers are leaving the profession before recommending an intervention. The paper cited shows teachers who started teaching in 2007 or 2008 and mostly in situations that have little relevance for current California teachers. Is it possible that someone who "researches teacher preparation and beginning teacher supports" does not have more current or relevant data? Perhaps the habit of California school districts of sending novice teachers into the least … Read More
It might be helpful to understand why teachers are leaving the profession before recommending an intervention. The paper cited shows teachers who started teaching in 2007 or 2008 and mostly in situations that have little relevance for current California teachers. Is it possible that someone who “researches teacher preparation and beginning teacher supports” does not have more current or relevant data?
Perhaps the habit of California school districts of sending novice teachers into the least desirable schools has an effect?
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Andrew Kwok 1 month ago1 month ago
The paper from 2007-2008 is a central study conducted by the government that takes a good longitudinal look and followed beginning teachers. There are numerous current studies, including the California specific URL afterwards (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X211060840; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01614681221093011) to name a few. Part of the issue in learning about California specifically has been that the state department of education has been difficult to collect and access data, which has only recently improved. I'm aware the Learning Policy Institute … Read More
The paper from 2007-2008 is a central study conducted by the government that takes a good longitudinal look and followed beginning teachers. There are numerous current studies, including the California specific URL afterwards (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X211060840; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01614681221093011) to name a few. Part of the issue in learning about California specifically has been that the state department of education has been difficult to collect and access data, which has only recently improved. I’m aware the Learning Policy Institute and several other individual researchers who are trying to make sense of who exactly is leaving and why within California specifically. In terms of why teachers leave, generally, we know that issues of a lack of preparation, workplace conditions, administration, resources, finances, and a host of other document reasons undermine why teachers leave. But for beginning teachers, researchers often focus on the support/preparation portion to try and eliminate training as a ‘more solveable’ option than some of the other mentioned issues. Teacher attrition is a multi-pronged and complex issue, including sending beginning teachers to underserved schools. Any step forward, however small it is, is one worth taking in my opinion. I’d love to hear of other actionable options as well.
Jim 1 month ago1 month ago
Thank you Andrew, I was involved with two CA districts as a parent. One was LAUSD and the other was a smaller, fairly well regarded, district. When we modeled teacher compensation against both CA and national benchmarks it was clear that the senior teachers were paid much higher than comparable districts while the junior teachers were much lower. It was clear to me that the teacher's union conspired with the administration to adjust salary scales … Read More
Thank you Andrew,
I was involved with two CA districts as a parent. One was LAUSD and the other was a smaller, fairly well regarded, district. When we modeled teacher compensation against both CA and national benchmarks it was clear that the senior teachers were paid much higher than comparable districts while the junior teachers were much lower. It was clear to me that the teacher’s union conspired with the administration to adjust salary scales to favor teachers who are more powerful in the union. The net was a continued outflow of junior teachers though I believe most of them went to other districts rather than leaving the profession. A side benefit of this to the union was they were able to claim that a large proportion of teachers were close to retirement and we needed to raise salaries and increase the parcel tax. So the union created the “retirement crisis” and then exploited it.
Neither the schoolboard nor the admin had any appetite to address this issue.
I believe the students would have been better served by a mix of teachers.
Andrew Kwok 1 month ago1 month ago
Yes, Jim can imagine your frustration. Salary and union "issues" are central to poor recruitment and attrition. Districts need to recognize central issues to have a chance at trying to mitigate them. Going back to this article, many states don't even have or require induction. Where I currently live, Texas does not and that is easily reflected in the quality of the workforce, particularly in comparison to California, which does. So districts, policymakers, administration all … Read More
Yes, Jim can imagine your frustration. Salary and union “issues” are central to poor recruitment and attrition. Districts need to recognize central issues to have a chance at trying to mitigate them. Going back to this article, many states don’t even have or require induction.
Where I currently live, Texas does not and that is easily reflected in the quality of the workforce, particularly in comparison to California, which does. So districts, policymakers, administration all have different foci depending on the context. We may know what needs to be done but getting it implemented…that’s always harder. I hope that some of those people can see this and make necessary changes for their context.
Rusconi 1 month ago1 month ago
Returning teachers who decide to give more but have been away from the classroom need these types of support as well as administrators who understand the difficulty of SPED. SPED, especially functional level is unlike other areas of special education because of the complexity of issues and the population of mixed disabilities in many of these lowest functioning students with severe, anti-social, and outright dangerous behaviors. Principals and those that make judgement on how … Read More
Returning teachers who decide to give more but have been away from the classroom need these types of support as well as administrators who understand the difficulty of SPED. SPED, especially functional level is unlike other areas of special education because of the complexity of issues and the population of mixed disabilities in many of these lowest functioning students with severe, anti-social, and outright dangerous behaviors.
Principals and those that make judgement on how a teacher is doing in the first year of return, or first year of teaching should not be the only performance evaluators. Coaches need to be in the decision making process and be part of the coaching process ( not singly the evaluating process). So few principals have ever taught SPED ( functional level) to really understand that when behavioral issues are great, teaching effectively goes out the door (especially when many classes to not have enough paras in the room or paras trained correctly). Everything this article states is correct; however there is more needed than just a good coach – we need better administrators especially for SPED.
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Andrew Kwok 1 month ago1 month ago
100% agree. SPED, principal-ship are some of the most under-researched, under-funded, under-populated areas. Again, teacher support is complex but the more people can productively communicate across multiple areas towards the singular goals of improving teachers and improving students, I think progress can occur.