St. Clair ROE #50 - Belleville (FY 07)

Grantee: St. Clair ROE #50

Location: 1000 South Illinois St.
Belleville, IL 62220

Name: The St. Clair Induction Pilot

Partners: St. Clair Regional Office of Education, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, and 15 local school districts.

Interesting features:

* Model is similar to the Induction for the 21 st Century Educator
* What is RESPRO? – Regional Service Provider, assists schools that fail to make AYP
* Each new teacher is paired with a highly qualified veteran teacher (goal of matching by experience, grade level, or subject area)
o In one district, retired teachers who have been serving in recent years as mentors will work with up to five beginning teachers.
* New teachers and mentors each earn a $500 stipend, plus appropriate professional materials ($100 for mentor, $200 for new teachers)
* Proposal acknowledges the importance of the principal, especially their role in arranging the daily schedule so that the new teacher and mentor can meet.
* Use of lesson plans and student work samples.
* Mentors provide formative assessment data to teachers; no role in teacher evaluation for credentialing or retention purposes were noted.
* Program evaluation includes two interesting components.
o Will include a focus on retention in high poverty, urban schools – they will compare retention rates for urban teachers who participated and those who did not participate in the project.
o Determine the effectiveness of the pilot program in comparison with RESPRO mentoring project and the professional development symposium for new RESPRO teachers. One program features mentoring only, the other features pd only, while the pilot features both mentoring and pd.

Program overview:

The program has requirements for the new teacher, the school mentor, and principal.

* First year teachers attend two orientation/training sessions in September and 4 pd sessions between Oct-Feb. They are to complete the scheduled observations and conferences with their mentor, record their personal reflections throughout the project, and complete assessment and evaluation documentation. New teachers are to keep a written reflection of their professional practice, based on the pd sessions they attend.
* School Mentors are to be nominated by local professional association and the principal. The mentors are to attend 4 pd sessions in Sept-Jan, complete observations and conferences with their new teacher, complete written analyses of new teacher reflections on practice, complete assessment and evaluation documentation, optional attendance at new teacher seminars, use of mentor listserve. Mentors are to conduct 3 formative observations based on the IPTS and conference with their new teacher as well as a conference on analysis of student work.
* School principals are to provide flexible time for the new teacher/mentor to meet (# hours not specified), attend Administrator Academy training for principals, complete assessment and evaluation information.
* Lesson plans and samples of student work are used for discussion between beginning teachers, mentors, and lead mentors – formative assessment only.

Program evaluation:

* Retention overall – number of participating new teachers who intend to return to their current teaching assignment.
* Retention in high poverty, urban schools – the program will compare retention rates for urban teachers who participated and those who did not participate in the project.
* Satisfaction surveys of new teachers, mentors, and school administrators using Induction for the 21 st Century documents.
* Evaluations of training sessions for beginning teachers and mentors.
* Determine the effectiveness of the pilot program in comparison with RESPRO mentoring project and the professional development symposium for new RESPRO teachers. One program features mentoring only, the other features pd only, while the pilot features both mentoring and pd.

Key Contact:

Patricia Tucker Ladd, Ed.D.

618-825-3900 x3933

tuckerladd@stclair.k12.il.us