We’ve all seen the headlines — our schools are understaffed, and enrollment in teacher prep programs is down. Public perceptions about our education system and the narrative about teachers and teaching can only be described as depressing. In short, the teaching profession is in trouble.

While what to do about it is being debated in state houses, think tanks, and prep programs across the country, at New Teacher Center, we believe the future of teaching depends on a reinvigorated vision for teacher mentoring. In the short term, mentoring is a critical bridge for teachers entering the profession right now through diverse and non-traditional pathways. It also needs to be integral to the design of longer-term efforts to reshape what teacher preparation, induction, and professional learning and collaboration look like.

Twenty-five years ago, NTC came into being because Ellen Moir and her colleagues said, and the field agreed: We can’t accept the teacher turnover problem — the loss of all that talent, the harm it does to teachers and the kids they serve. Instead of feeling isolated and ill-prepared, we need to ensure that every new teacher has the opportunity to collaborate with a quality mentor. To improve retention and teacher effectiveness, induction should be normalized, formalized, and grounded in the best research on how new teachers learn to teach.

In defining what this could and should look like, we spelled out three things:

• the nature of the relationship between mentor and mentee (highly personalized, trusting, power-neutral, teacher-led)
• the focus of mentoring interactions (a job-embedded teaching and coaching cycle to guide instructional conversations)
• the concrete details of the induction infrastructure (trained mentors, a prescription for the frequency and duration of support, meaningful school leader engagement)

These fundamentals are still foundational as we consider a new vision for mentoring based on the talents and needs of our potential new teachers. While the next generation of educators is still driven by the same sense of purpose, they come from widely varied preparation experiences. They also have different expectations for their careers. They want a job where they have opportunities for advancement. They are not interested in entering a profession that people talk about in terms of survival idioms — make or break, sink or swim — and where it feels difficult to make a difference. They have other options.

Our job, then, is to help think about what we can do differently to make our schools places where teachers (and their students) want to be and where they can flourish. It is within our sphere of influence.

NTC is looking at the future of mentoring as the key to a revitalized teaching profession built for the long haul. We are talking to all our partners, conducting empathy interviews with new teachers and teacher advocates, looking at the research, and watching with deep interest the exciting movement in talent development strategies — in apprenticeships, for example, and school staffing and team teaching models. In all of this work, we know that mentors will serve in lynchpin positions in support of new teachers coming through myriad pathways to serve a wide range of school communities.

As we face whatever the future is going to bring to the field of education, if we are going to invest in one sure thing, we believe it should be a quality mentoring experience for every new teacher. In the coming months, NTC will be convening educators, organizations, and researchers to talk about the role mentors can and should play in the transitional spaces within and between teacher preparation and in-service induction. If we want to expand the pipeline, we also have to ensure that the pathways to the classroom offer the quality of support that aspiring teachers and their future students deserve. We need everyone’s best thinking as we talk about how mentoring can make the difference for the generations to come. It’s critical for the profession and for the future of our schools. Join us.

NTC designed tailored pre-service professional learning and mentor training to support aspiring teachers in M-DCPS’s Grow Your Own (GYO) pathways, aligning with the district’s vision for teacher recruitment, retention, and development.

Our partnership with M-DCPS recently focused on enhancing district teacher recruitment efforts through custom professional learning for candidates in its Clerical to Teach (C2T) and Paraprofessional to Teach (P2T) programs. These initiatives provide pathways to full teacher certification for eligible staff, offering comprehensive support and the necessary resources to prepare candidates for the Florida Teacher Certification Exam.

Participants in the programs already play a crucial role in students’ lives, serving as vital liaisons in the classroom and between the school, families and caregivers, and the community. The C2T and P2T programs aim to strengthen the workforce by leveraging candidates’ deep community knowledge and school-based experience.

NTC developed targeted pre-service professional learning and mentoring to support aspiring GYO teachers’ transitions to new roles in the classroom.

We spoke with Principal Brooke Will about how her experience as an NTC-supported mentor informed her role as a school leader.

The research on teacher retention and working conditions is pretty clear about the importance of having a mentor or coach. We also know that a thoughtful and comprehensive induction experience is a key factor in teacher retention and a stepping stone to continued professional growth for new teachers. This critical transition period into the classroom can’t be left to chance. Beginning teachers need support not only to manage the nuts and bolts of the day-to-day but also to accelerate the development of the skills and confidence they need as professionals.

And the impact of mentoring goes well beyond new teacher support. For many mentors, it’s a pathway to teacher and school leadership. Brooke Will, former principal of Madelia Elementary in Madelia, Minnesota, is just one example. After receiving intensive training in NTC’s comprehensive, relationship-based, instructionally focused induction model, she subsequently served as a mentor for new teachers then as an instructional coach for veteran teachers, a university supervisor for pre-service teachers, and a professional learning designer, before moving into administration.

Brooke said that mentors are key to helping new teachers focus on the foundational mindsets they need to become the educators their students need them to be — knowing who their learners are and building a practice of reflecting and analyzing what happens in the classrooms that helps them grow. She also observed that quality mentoring can have a ripple effect throughout the whole school, serving as the cornerstone of the kind of deeply relational instructional culture teachers deserve and that helps them do their jobs and do them well.

“As a former mentor myself, I’ve seen firsthand the impact quality mentoring can have. You see new teachers growing more confident, learning to succeed, becoming professionals, and moving into leadership roles. As a principal, it’s an understanding and a responsibility I brought to my position. Mentoring influences the entire school community, building an ethos of collaborative professional learning and a peer culture that embraces improvement.”

Bringing a mentoring mindset to a leadership role

According to Brooke, her experience as a mentor bolstered her effectiveness as an administrator and instructional leader. “I gained considerable knowledge about keeping new teachers in the classroom and coaching educators at different career stages to continue their development. As a mentor and coach, I worked collaboratively alongside teachers to encourage them to do the thinking rather than being the giver of knowledge. As a professional learning practice, mentoring taught me the skill set of how to sit with a teacher, ask the right questions, and guide conversations so that teachers analyze their own practice and come up with their own answers and solutions.”

Brooke said that after becoming a school leader she continued to use her “mentor muscles” in her principal evaluator role, a practice she’s proud of. “I think my teachers would say my leadership style is one of respect and trust. I truly believe it’s the key to affecting change in teachers. When you come down harsh on a teacher — you’re doing this wrong and this wrong and this wrong — they get defeated. With my instructional coaching background, I always start with, ‘Hey, here are some great things I saw you doing. Here are some areas of growth. How can we work on this?’ Then I create the space for them to develop those ideas, providing support and resources as needed. Yes, I do have to evaluate them on a rubric, but we use it as a form of co-assessment to talk through where they are and how to get where they want to be. Nine times out of 10, they take the feedback and actually apply it. They know I’m not there to judge them. I’m there to help them get better.”

With my instructional coaching background, I always start with, ‘Hey, here are some great things I saw you doing. Here are some areas of growth. How can we work on this?’ Then I create the space for them to develop those ideas, providing support and resources as needed.

Mentoring to center students and build reflective practice

One of the hallmarks of NTC’s mentoring model is its emphasis on knowing students, guiding and encouraging teachers to learn who their students are in order to design better instruction. Another emphasis is on developing a habit or mindset of reflection, not just moving on, but circling back and asking what worked well in a lesson, what didn’t, and building that practice as part of a teacher’s instructional toolset.

Brooke said the focus on knowing students was particularly important in her former elementary school, which served 300 students, a third of whom were multilingual learners. “For the most part, my teachers didn’t speak their home languages. So that knowing students piece was huge. Building an academic learner profile is like an iceberg. There is the little bit we see, but a lot we have to work harder, dive deeper, to understand. For our multilingual learner teachers, understanding this holistic view of students not only improves lesson planning but deepens trust and relationships — it’s ground zero for establishing the conditions every student needs to engage in rigorous instruction.”

This knowledge of students also supports teachers to more effectively reflect on their practice in alignment with their students’ needs. They can dig into what happened during a lesson and look for instructional impact or alternative strategies to try. Or, as one of Brooke’s new teachers put it: “I know what to ask myself questions about.”

No one develops these practices overnight, Brooke shared. “A mentor is a powerful partner in supporting teachers to cultivate the habits of mind to return to these processes to design and improve instruction until it becomes second nature to their teaching practice.”

Mentoring to support a strong instructional culture

Brooke was adamant that each new teacher deserves a formalized induction process, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to participate in Minnesota’s pilot induction and mentoring program, which provided NTC training for mentors in her building. She said that it was critical that mentors and other staff supporting new teachers have a shared language and approach. She also observed that mentors were eager to learn and practice with their colleagues. “We’re all mentoring each other, building solutions together, learning how to be reflective practitioners, how to use data and professional knowledge to continuously develop our instructional practices to meet the needs of our kids.”

She continued: “Teacher induction should be so much more than a couple days of orientation. It should be an embedded, multi-year plan integrated with all teacher development initiatives and professional learning. Induction is the first several steps of a lifelong process for professional teachers, and it all starts with good mentoring that has a ripple effect over the course of their careers and across the school.”

This webinar, presented in partnership with Results for America and Grant Wood Area Education Agency (GWAEA), highlights how to build effective, sustained, and well-supported induction programs. As part of GWAEA’s induction programming, new teachers in participating school districts receive two years of job-embedded professional development. At the core of these supports are induction coaches, who guide beginning teachers in improving their practice. These coaches, who are identified through a rigorous selection process, receive intensive training and coaching to ensure they can effectively support new teachers. Presenters make a case for what drives induction programming success, the critical importance of diverse stakeholder collaboration for buy-in and efficacy, and how to design program evaluation that yields evidence that supports continuous improvement while demonstrating the program’s credibility.

Key takeaways included:

Induction supports multiple benefits, some less visible.

• Supporting new teachers in evidence-based practices that build optimal learning environments is crucial for enhancing student outcomes and experiences.
• Nurturing teachers’ sense of success through job-embedded coaching and collaboration accelerates development, fosters persistence, and creates meaning…all key indicators that lead to improved teacher retention.
• Targeted professional development for beginning teachers is a strong recruitment strategy. It supports higher-quality talent pipelines while creating a supportive instructional culture.

Stakeholder engagement is imperative for long-term success.

• Treating school principals as true partners by involving them in joint program design efforts and aligning induction programs with school goals enhances support for new teachers and promotes program sustainability.
• Understanding district priorities and challenges while providing regular data updates, relevant learning, and voiceovers of program impact ensures district-level buy-in and sustainability.
• Establishing a multi-stakeholder steering committee with diverse representation fosters collective decision-making and ensures program alignment.

Collaboration is a cornerstone of setting instructional culture for new teachers.

• Intentional communication structures, such as triad conversations between principals, instructional coaches, induction coaches, and new teachers, do more than get everyone on the same page and demonstrate the level of investment in new teachers. These interactions facilitate alignment, continuous improvement, and support rooted in concrete growth and development goals.
• Bringing together the valued perspectives of new teachers and students (alongside other stakeholders) creates a collaborative mindset around how an engaged community is self-assessing and self-shaping program improvements.

Evidence is a foundational lever to collect support.

• A multi-pronged approach to program evaluation blends together multiple data points. Reach and implementation data (quantitative data, such as the number of teachers, coaching time, observations, etc.) helps assess program fidelity and implementation. Impact Data — the “so what” data — combines qualitative and quantitative measures to showcase the program’s influence on mentor/coach and new teacher practices, enabling ongoing reflection and adjustment of program actions. Student outcomes data draws direct lines between program impact and improved student outcomes, telling the complete story of student learning experiences in real-time alongside teacher development.
• Be practical in establishing an evaluation plan, first by clarifying program outcomes and intentions to determine what implementation, impact, and tangible non-survey data will provide readily actionable insights.

Speakers:

• Kimberly Owen, Regional Administrator, Grant Woods Area Education Agency
• Anna Selk, Associate Superintendent, Benton Community School District
• Ellen Hur, Vice President of Solutions, Results for America
• Ross Tilchen, Director of Economic Mobility, Results for America
• Ann Wenzel, Vice President of Program & Partnerships, New Teacher Center
• Jennifer Iacovino, Director of Program and Partnerships, New Teacher Center

^{1 Results for America Case Study
2 Webinar Research Round-up}

This resource emphasizes the importance of a rigorous selection process based on clear criteria, ongoing professional learning for mentors/coaches, and ensuring protected time for mentor-teacher interactions. By offering multi-year mentoring and continuous support for all educators, not just struggling or first-year teachers, schools can foster sustained growth and improved instructional practices across the board.

Building from our nationally recognized teacher induction program and 20+ years of experience working in close consultative partnerships with hundreds of districts across the country, the New Teacher Center (NTC) has become a leader in teacher development. Today, our evidence-based mentoring and coaching program models support leadership to design sustainable school- and district-based systems of support for teachers at all stages of their careers—from beginners to teacher leaders.

To better understand how to implement effective instructional coaching programs at scale, in 2015, NTC received a five-year Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Working with SRI, the external evaluator for the grant, we looked at the complex process of implementing our rigorous, instructionally focused coaching model in two case study sites. Specifically, this work involved:

• Capturing data that uncovered the existing perceptions, practices, and contextual factors that impacted early implementation at the case study sites
• Using our formative assessment system in conjunction with specific recommended leadership practices to support effective implementation
• Documenting early indicators of positive change in teacher practice and student outcomes

This report presents a summary of findings, including:

• A brief description of the case for coaching as a driver of instructional improvement and outline of the NTC Program Theory of Action
• Example data from case study sites that illustrate typical coaching contexts
• Examples of implementation and course correction strategies with recommendations detailing leadership practices that have resulted in improved implementation in the case study sites
• Preliminary data that indicate resulting change in teacher instructional practice at the case study sites with potential impact on student learning anticipated in the longer term

Rachel Baker wasn’t always going to be a teacher. At one point, she was on her way to pharmacy school, but life got in the way. Fast forward 16 years, and she’s now a mentor teacher specialist in Calvert County Public Schools.

Rachel became a mentor through a Maryland Leads-funded project to establish a formal induction program in her district, which, like many small and rural school systems, is challenged to recruit and retain new teachers. New Teacher Center provided intensive professional learning and in-field coaching for three new district full-release mentor positions. Working closely with Rachel and TJ Hill, supervisor of instructional technology and teacher induction, NTC supported training and forums with additional staff to build a mentoring mindset across other instructional roles and initiatives in the district. Calvert County was a featured partner in our spring 2024 webinar on teacher retention in smaller districts.

Earlier this year, Rachel shared insights from her mentoring journey.

Tell us how you came to be a teacher and a mentor.

I didn’t actually go to school to be a teacher. I have a degree in chemistry, and I thought that I was going to be a pharmacist, … but I needed to take a year off so I decided I’d try being a substitute teacher. I went to the training, and two weeks later got the call that a chemistry teacher had just quit unexpectedly, and they needed a long-term sub. After I was there for a few months, they offered me the full-time position, and I haven’t looked back since. I think part of the reason why I was successful was because I was assigned a mentor who was amazing. I still send her Christmas cards; we email back and forth. I really cannot imagine what I would’ve done without her. I probably wouldn’t have stayed.

I taught high school chemistry and physical chemistry at the middle school level. Then I got my master’s in educational leadership, and when I moved to Calvert County Public Schools, I became a dean of students at a middle school, and a few years later, a high school assistant principal. The reason I wanted to go into administration was to be an instructional leader, but sometimes that’s really difficult when you’re dealing with the day-to-day tasks and responsibilities of an administrator. I feel like this job allows me to actually tap into what I genuinely care about. I also truly understand the impact a mentor can have on the success of a teacher. So here we are.

As a mentor, what have you learned is important about working with new teachers?

Validating their commitment and experience to give them space to grow. I think it’s important to acknowledge and recognize what they are doing is a hard job. I think it is also important to help them understand there is no expectation that they are going to know everything or be perfect and that we are there to provide support in order for them to grow their practice. They might need help understanding that you can have a very wonderful lesson plan, but when it comes down to actually implementing it, sometimes it doesn’t go as planned. That’s okay. You just go back and reflect and make some modifications. Every day is going to be different; every period is going to be different. We’re humans, and we’re interacting with humans, so you can only predict so many things.

Recognizing their knowledge and expertise is important too. Even if they don’t have advanced expertise in terms of instruction, they do have expertise about themselves, and they have expertise about the students they are teaching. As a mentor, I’m not with those students, so I don’t know them. So it’s crucial to have conversations with teachers and ask for their input instead of telling them what to do. A mentoring conversation is about truly including them in a dialogue so that it’s a partnership, a collaboration.

What are some common challenges new teachers have creating optimal learning environments for students?

When we ask teachers to pick their focus area for a mentoring session or a lesson, for many, it starts with a need to improve classroom management. I would say on the new teacher’s part, there is a huge concern around managing classroom behaviors because when their classroom isn’t functioning the way it should, it’s impacting the learning. Usually, it’s either a lack of knowledge or maybe inconsistency with creating routines and procedures, or with communicating consistently and then following through.

Recognizing and supporting students’ needs is a big part of it. My role is trying to reframe questions so teachers reflect on what assumptions they are making about a student (or students) and what they actually know about them. I have had many conversations with teachers to address how they see specific students, or even a class, in a negative light rather than their behaviors. I truly believe that every student, every person, wants to do well. And if they are not doing well, it is because there is something getting in their way, and their behavior is communicating that.

So, many of the optimal learning environment conversations I have with teachers are focused on making it safe to have those conversations with kids and encouraging them to reflect on the kind of opportunities for learning they are providing. Do their learners feel connected? Are they interested? Do they find the instruction relevant to their lives and who they are?

What are some features of high-quality mentoring?

It’s important in the beginning to definitely spend a lot of time building trusting relationships and trying to remove any barriers or biases … finding that grace and understanding throughout our interactions. Then, if we focus on coaching language and stances, it helps us approach conversations with teachers with the right entry points depending on where the person is. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of knowing teachers and then helping teachers know the students in their classrooms so they are actually planning instruction for those specific students and not just a generalized plan.

What do you cherish about being a mentor?

I just had a session last week with someone, and he made a comment that was pretty interesting. He said: “Wow. This lesson is so much better now that I have talked it through with you. Even though this is something extra that I have to do, it is a burden that I am happy to carry.” It happens all the time. A new teacher says they can see the benefit of having conversations about how things can be modified or improved to truly meet student needs. It is so worthwhile seeing their confidence increase throughout the year.

What are some concerns you have that might require a reset from existing mindsets about induction and new teacher support?

When we did a needs assessment at the beginning of last school year, we saw a real disconnect in perceptions about student-centered support. Something like 70+% of school leaders said they were providing support to help teachers be student-centered, but only 20% of teachers said they’re receiving that kind of feedback. A majority of school leaders also said they lacked training in ways to support new teachers. As someone who has been an administrator, I know that’s true. The training I received about observing and evaluating teachers was literally a one-hour session watching a mock lesson. We didn’t role-play post-observation conversations with the teacher, or even have boxes on the template for notes or feedback, no guidance on that at all. I truly see the value in having an opportunity to receive feedback and have a conversation about your practice, so we all need to be on the same page. We need to all have consistent language and understanding and also consistent expectations.

We also have a lot of teachers coming in on provisional licenses — definitely more than half the teachers I’m working with this year are — who don’t have a background in education. I was one of those teachers myself. We have teachers coming to teach in our Career and Technology Academy with 20+ years of industry expertise in their field, also with no instructional background. It’s challenging because there are so many foundational things that we need to work on before working through a coaching cycle.

It’s especially hard in career and technical content areas that don’t have state standards. A lot of these new teachers are writing the curriculum themselves — a first-year teacher having to write their own curriculum and create their own lessons. When you have no background in education, that’s overwhelming and stressful. We have to do everything we can to meet them where they are and allow them to gain confidence so they can be successful and stay in the profession.

Sometimes a relationship doesn’t vibe.

Other times, challenging relationships can provide the most fertile ground for growth.

As the lead mentor for new teacher induction in Miami-Dade Public Schools, Cheryl Pickney has seen relationships that run the gamut – from best friends to friction that feels like it hangs in the air. But one particular relationship stands out.

“We had a music teacher mentoring an art teacher,” said Cheryl. At first, the art teacher was very withdrawn. “It was like pulling teeth to get him to come to mentoring sessions,” she said. He didn’t seem to see the value in mentoring, and just wanted to be left alone. Then the relationship with his mentor went from cool to icy.

“At one point during an observation with his support mentor, he literally got up and headed to the door saying ‘I don’t trust this, I’m out of here,’” said Cheryl. Luckily, Cheryl was also there and able to work side-by-side with the mentor to deconstruct the barriers to building trust in their relationship. They talked about what made him uncomfortable. But he was reluctant to continue mentoring, and just didn’t think it was a good fit.

Teacher in Miami-Dade working with students during COVID-19 pandemic

Something had to be done.

Cheryl sat down with the mentor and looked at the script from the conversation. It became very clear what the art teacher was experiencing in sessions. “I realized [the mentor] was just rolling through the questions without really listening,” said Cheryl.

Cheryl worked with the mentor to focus on intentional listening as a way to repair and rebuild the relationship. “I told her, ‘Next time, do away with the script and really listen to what he says.’”

Successful coaching and mentoring isn’t ticking off a checklist. Attending to the needs of teachers and following paths — even when deviating from the topic at hand — deepens a sense of partnership.

And it transitions power from a place of imbalance where one dictates to the other, to a collaborative and co-creative space that allows for autonomy and strength of voice. “If you’re intentional in your listening, you can reach him,” said Cheryl. “We started making a plan.”

The practice of coaching hinges on the fact that feedback is critical for growth. But being open to feedback requires tremendous groundwork – groundwork that involves deep listening and connection, and a willingness to be adaptive. The mentor Cheryl was working with needed to lay the right foundation for feedback to be received and take root.

Starting over, the mentor and the art teacher began building common connections as people, finding grounds to share that exist outside of a space of judgement and critical feedback. Their conversations became more open, more personal. Turns out, he’s a musician himself and in a band. “It was something he didn’t really share with his students or the staff. But she talked with him about it,” said Cheryl. Little by little, they made a connection.

Group of students working on a biology project

She mentored him for the next year and Cheryl is happy to report “you could see the growth.” By the end of the year, he was really opening up — not just with his mentor, but with his students as well.

He even performed at the year-end assembly. “His students, they weren’t ready for that,” laughed Cheryl. When he got up on that stage and started to perform, “they were shocked to see that he was this really cool guy.” He began to establish real connections with his kids – the kind of relationships that reach beyond the curriculum. Those sorts of classroom connections are invaluable, and can lead to better, deeper learning and engagement.

Cheryl credits this transformation to his mentor. “Her work with him helped change the connection he had with those kids.”

New Teacher Center’s long-time partner Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has always been an innovator. We are more than excited to support M-DCPS’s multi-faceted Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher pathways programming as part of our ongoing collaboration to engage and support aspiring and beginning teachers, and the students they serve.

In summer 2022, with their office phones often ringing in the background, this year’s cohort of aspiring educators participating in Miami-Dade County Public School’s (M-DCPS) Clerical to Teach (C2T) and Paraprofessional to Teach (P2T) programs took their next big steps toward becoming teachers. During a custom pre-service learning experience designed and facilitated by NTC program consultants Taryn Glynn and Jeanna Hawkins, these seasoned school professionals, some of whom have worked in the district for decades, came together to take their rich experience serving students, families, and the local and school community to the next level.

Over the course of an intensive week, participants examined the three domains of optimal learning. (This framework, which is grounded in the science of learning and development, provides a schema, concepts, and language to talk about classroom conditions that reflect what we know about how students learn best.) Participants identified the critical importance of knowing students and building authentic, healthy relationships as the foundation for learning. And the cohort enthusiastically embraced new learning about standards, subject-area content, and instructional practice, eager for more.

“They were such a joyful and engaged group, and the community aspect of the training was particularly empowering,” said Taryn and Jeanna. “Their understanding of the learning environment from their current jobs allowed them to quickly make deep contextual connections with the content provided in the session. In addition, because they have worked within the dynamics of the school system and come from the same professional backgrounds, the training was a safe space for learning that supported confidence building — participants came together in community as ‘non-instructional staff’ to support each other in building their identities as educators.”

Throughout the coming year, candidates will receive ongoing support from NTC-guided “buddy teachers” as they continue preparing for certification (and continue to serve in their current jobs). Once they are hired as “teachers of record,” C2T and P2T teachers will access three more years of aligned support through the district’s comprehensive induction program for all beginning teachers.

The C2T and P2T programs are part of a suite of grow your own educator pathways M-DCPS initiated several years ago to increase teacher retention and address staffing shortages. These two programs were designed to engage current district employees who have rich community knowledge and experience working with families and students as potential educators. The goal is to capitalize on the assets and expertise they bring to their new roles in the classroom.

Identifying GYO participants as ”pre-service” teachers was intentional, said Stephanie Garcia-Fields, NTC senior program consultant. Aspiring educators taking alternative routes to teaching often miss the typical supervised clinical experience that traditionally trained teacher candidates are required to complete. She also emphasized that designing a custom pre-service offering aligned with their experience and needs was critical. “The first step we took was to sit down with the program leaders to see what participants would need specifically based on the work they are already doing and the strengths they will bring to their roles,” Stephanie said. “This is something we want them to realize, that the knowledge they bring as an experienced member of the school community is going to translate into a strength in the classroom. We want to highlight and build on the skills and contacts and touchpoints and knowledge they already have that perhaps a regularly trained classroom teacher might not. [It] helps to build confidence and identity as an educator, which is important for retention, efficacy, and, of course, the student experience.”

These teacher candidates already play an essential role in students’ lives. They serve as vital liaisons between the school, caregivers, and the community. Non-instructional staff have deep knowledge of students from day-to-day interactions in the front office, including historical information, home dynamics, and knowledge about attendance and academic strengths and needs. Participants who have served as paraprofessionals can also bring practical experience with classroom management, instructional strategies, IEP implementation, early/child development, parental/caregiver engagement, and learning differences to the job.

In addition to C2T and P2T, NTC is also supporting another ongoing district GYO initiative called the Temporary Instructor Preparation and Support program (TIPS). TIPS is designed to recruit college students to explore teaching as a career while serving as temporary instructors in long-term substitute positions. Three more GYO pathways in development are being created specifically to recruit more men of color currently serving in security and custodial roles. Another emerging effort targets M-DCPS high school students through the Florida Future Educators of America pathway called Project REDI (Recruiting, Empowering, and Developing Inclusive Male Teachers of Color).

Stephanie highlighted M-DCPS’s willingness to experiment within an aligned and coherent vision for teacher development as particularly powerful. This has been true, she said, ever since NTC first partnered with M-DCPS to build its comprehensive Mentoring and Induction for New Teachers program over a decade ago. “That alignment is really important to Miami,” she said. “It’s their goal that everybody gets equal access to high quality pre-service experiences, no matter what pathway brings them to the classroom.”

“Our Grow Your Own pathways are deliberately crafted with support structures.”

— Kristin Trompeter, M-DCPS Executive Director, New Teacher Support, Office of Professional Learning and Career Development

Kristen Trompeter, M-DCPS’s executive director of new teacher support, shared a reflection on the intention and design of GYO for the district. “Recently, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) shifted so that our division of professional development now includes a focus on career enhancement, establishing the Office of Professional Learning and Career Development. From students in our schools to individuals newly relocated to South Florida who have only dreamed about working in education, we want potential hires to know that they can have a full career with M-DCPS, their employer of choice. Our Grow Your Own pathways are deliberately crafted with support structures. These plans encourage strategic partnerships, like the one M-DCPS has with the New Teacher Center, to ensure that participants in these pathways are provided with current and expert knowledge and skill sets that will lead to not only their success, but also to that of our students.”

A key priority for M-DCPS, said Stephanie, “is not just filling seats, but getting the people our kids need into the classroom … recruiting staff who come from the community, who really care about teaching and learning, and then supporting them to grow into their roles as educators.”

M-DCPS At-a-Glance

Over the last 10+ years, New Teacher Center and Miami-Dade County Public Schools have partnered on several major federal grants to implement and refine the district’s vision for a coherent teacher professional growth and development program. A current focus of the partnership is integrating support for potential teacher candidates coming through alternative pathways.

M-DCPS is the 4th largest school district in the U.S.: 392 schools, 345,000 students, and over 40,000 employees, covering over 2,000 square miles and serving communities ranging from rural and suburban, to urban cities and municipalities. Students in M-DCPS speak 56 different languages and represent 160 countries.

With a lot of people coming and going from the continental United States, a significant military presence, and a high cost of living, teacher turnover has long plagued Hawai’i schools. While nationally nearly half of new teachers leave the classroom in the first five years, Hawai’i was losing them in just three. Determined to stem the tide, state leaders implemented a robust induction program based on NTC’s research-based model. Hawai’i’s bold investment is now a beacon for states facing similar challenges.

We spoke with Keri Shimomoto and Kristen Brummel, educational specialists with the Hawai’i Teacher Induction Center, about the evolution of the state’s program and the key components that contribute to both its stability and coherence and its ability to remain dynamic, responsive, and reflective of the rich cultural context of Hawai’i.

After serving as an induction coordinator and mentor in the Honolulu District since 2001, Keri Shimomoto was asked to spearhead a comprehensive statewide induction and mentoring effort for the Hawai’i State Department of Education (HIDOE) in 2010 and has helped lead the state’s induction programming ever since. Kristen Brummel credits a new teacher course led by Keri early in her teaching career as life-changing. After being named Hawai’i State Teacher of the Year in 2011, she became a mentor herself. Kristen has also served as an induction program coordinator at the local level before joining the Hawai’i Teacher Induction Center last year.

When Keri first started doing this work, she recalled that a few induction programs existed, but new teacher support was not universally available. Her first formal mentor training came through a department partnership with the University of Hawai’i to support new emergency-hire special education teachers. New Teacher Center (NTC) provided the professional learning for participating mentors, which Keri described as “some of the best professional development I experienced as a teacher.” She said the experience helped her and her colleagues to “level up” their shared vision for quality mentoring as the cornerstone of teacher induction.

Over the next few years, NTC also provided programmatic consultation, conducting focus groups across the state to assess existing induction practices. “We found there were pockets of really good support for new teachers here and there, but there was a real need for consistency,” Keri said. Based on NTC’s recommendations for building a more coherent, statewide approach, the department began applying for grants and conducting small pilots. Eventually, the state spelled out its vision for new teacher support in a successful federal Race to the Top grant application, and in 2011, opened New Teacher Center Hawai’i. “We wanted to go for the gold standard,” Keri said, “to use the New Teacher Center’s model and contextualize it for our state.”

Those early years marked the beginning of a rich partnership that has fostered the growth of a state induction program now seen by Hawai’i’s education leadership as the “heartbeat of the department.” Hallmarks of this exemplary state model include stable infrastructure and funding, the guiding ethos of Nā Hopena A‘o, and an active commitment to sustain relevant, responsive, and continuously improving teacher support.

Hawai’i Teacher Induction Center team

Policy and infrastructure that says Hawai’i is serious about induction

New teachers in Hawai’i receive two years of intensive mentoring with ongoing new teacher-focused professional learning options through year three (and up to year five). This level of support is the result of policy initiatives, permanently funded induction positions to ensure comprehensive training for mentors at every level of the system, and local guidance and expectations for new teacher support programs that are spelled out in the Hawai’i Teacher Induction Program Standards.

Formalizing and institutionalizing high-quality induction as a state priority involved advocating with the Board of Education and the Hawai’i State Teachers Association. Keri said the resulting policy was critical: “We are able to say ‘We want to help teachers to get better, faster. It’s going to be better for your students, and we want to retain teachers. Also, it’s board policy, so it is an expectation, and we have the support of the teacher union to do this work.’”

Another critical piece was funding. “One of our goals,” Keri continued, “was to build a permanent induction system for beginning teachers. The only way to do that was to make sure we had permanent public funding for it, so we didn’t have to keep relying on grants and chasing after funds. It took some time to establish our existing office, but now there are 10 of us in positions that are publicly, permanently funded by the legislature and the governor. Teacher induction is in our general budget. That was a huge step.”

These state-level funded positions include two full-release special education mentors and five induction “state office teachers” responsible for working with local induction staff. Every superintendent of Hawai’i’s 15 “complex areas” (how the state refers to geographical districts) must designate an induction program coordinator who meets regularly with state staff. These coordinators also participate in Hawai’i’s Professional Learning Network (modeled on NTC’s National Program Leader Network) for quarterly professional learning designed to build induction leadership capacity. Local coordinators manage their complex area programs, including designing and facilitating professional learning for mentors serving in schools as well as for beginning teachers. “We felt it was really important to centralize and standardize the mentor training following the NTC model because we wanted to make sure that we were providing rigorous mentoring focused on improving instruction for all students, not just ‘buddy’ mentoring,” Keri said.

To sustain a high level of consistency, according to NTC program lead Vera-Lisa Roberts, state and local staff continue to participate in ongoing mentor training. They also continue to mentor at least one beginning teacher to keep their mentoring skills and perspectives fresh.

Another key piece of the program is the length and intentionality of the support for new teachers. The state coordinates beginning teacher summer academies and quarterly new teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) that are facilitated in each complex area. This is in addition to two years of intensive support paired with a trained mentor and engaging in 180 minutes of mentoring interactions a month. After the two years, some principals may request that teachers continue mentoring for a third year or teachers can request the support themselves. Otherwise, new teachers participate in specialized professional learning in years three, four, and sometimes, five. “We know that we still can lose teachers after that second year, third year, even fourth year, so we’ve created an extended system of support for those teachers once they no longer work so closely with their mentor,” said Keri.

The state also offers PLCs specifically for new teachers in years 2-4 led by veteran teacher leaders. According to Kristen, this is designed to leverage the expertise of exceptional teachers to share effective instructional practices with beginning teachers. “When teachers lead professional learning, they create a ripple effect. Their expertise inspires new teachers, ultimately benefiting all students. It creates a model of leadership that inspires new teachers to follow in those footsteps and become leaders themselves,” she said.

PLCs also provide opportunities for new teachers to collaborate with peers, an important working condition that research says improves job satisfaction and teacher retention. As a professional learning model, staff report that PLCs allow them to provide ongoing professional learning while staying flexible and adapting to how teachers want to engage. Kristen adds: “Building a network is crucial for new teachers. It fosters the understanding that resources and support can come from a diverse range of people and places. Additionally, collaborating with colleagues facing similar challenges provides invaluable guidance and camaraderie.”

Nā Hopena A‘o or HĀ

A more recent area of focus — and defining characteristic of Hawai’i’s induction approach — is captured in the HIDOEʻs Nā Hopena A‘o or HĀ. According to the state’s website, HĀ is a “department-wide framework to develop the skills, behaviors, and dispositions that are reminiscent of Hawaiʻi’s unique context and to honor the qualities and values of the indigenous language and culture of Hawaiʻi. The outcomes include a sense of Belonging, Responsibility, Excellence, Aloha, Total Wellbeing and Hawai‘i, that, when taken together, become the core BREATH that can be drawn on for strength and stability throughout school and beyond.”

NTC Program Consultant Vera-Lisa had a lot to say about the alignment of HĀ and NTC’s relational, student-centered approach to creating optimal learning environments. “There are so many connections to the science and optimal learning environments. It also reflects how we co-design with our partners. Across very different islands, it’s a very similar vision, everyone is working towards one goal.”

Keri agreed: “These are Hawaiian values that I’ve always felt really align well with NTC’s core values. NTC’s work with teachers and students always starts from a place of competence. Getting to know and honoring everyone’s gifts and building from there.”

“These are Hawaiian values that I’ve always felt really align well with NTC’s core values. NTC’s work with teachers and students always starts from a place of competence. Getting to know and honoring everyone’s gifts and building from there.”

And because so many teachers come to Hawai’i from the continental United States, the cultural aspect of induction that HĀ brings is essential to set new teachers up for success to create authentic relationships with students, families, and colleagues. “These are values that are important in the communities,” Vera-Lisa added. “Teachers from the mainland might not know that kids leave their shoes at the door, the importance of ancestors, grandparents coming into the classroom. HĀ helps bring teachers new to this context into the community.”

Commitment to collaboration, growth and, teacher leadership

Leveraging cross-departmental expertise and collaboration between the induction center and other state-level staff to address high-priority needs has been instrumental in growing the induction community across the department, Keri observed. “Our director always says we’re trying to ‘melt the walls’ between state offices because it is everyone’s responsibility to support new teachers.”

For example, joint work with the state special education office has resulted in specifically adapted mentor forums that reflect up-to-date special education law, policy, and practice. The induction office also advocated for 15 permanently funded positions (one for each complex area) for dedicated special education mentors to provide just-in-time support that meets the unique needs of new special education teachers and their students.

An annual statewide survey of mentors and new teachers also helps induction staff identify the departments and expertise needed to engage to meet teacher and student needs. Support for multilingual learners repeatedly surfaces as an area of significant need. “For the last three to four years, when we ask mentors and beginning teachers where they would like more training and support, multilingual learners are consistently in the top three. So, we partnered with the Castle Foundation, our state English Learner office, and NTC for training for induction coordinators and mentors. Now, we are looking at ways we can include this content in mentor forums for all mentors.”

Kristen highlighted another feature that makes Hawai’i’s program special: a “focus on continuous growth and exceptional support for beginning teachers and mentors as well as Complex Area Induction Program Coordinators.”

Vera-Lisa agreed, saying, “The Hawai’i team is always asking, ‘How can we make it better? How can we make the experience better for the mentors, better for the teachers, better for the kids? We need another lever to make it better.’”

To this end, the NTC team has been working with Hawai’i induction staff to provide “in-field coaching,” which involves coaching for coaches based on observations of their interactions with teachers — a core component of the NTC model. “Our mentors are passionate about making a difference and eager to grow their mentoring skills, and we’re committed to investing in them,” said Kristen.

The induction program also provides opportunities to foster teacher leadership development, which induction staff actively track. “We have over 500 mentors mentoring every year, and we train about 200 new mentors every year, which is really helping to build leadership capacity. How many of our mentors actually move into more formal leadership positions like principal, vice principal? It’s no accident that our induction program sits within HIDOE’s Leadership Institute. We do really contribute, from the very beginning of the pipeline, to building leadership from our new teachers to our mentors to our induction program leaders,” Keri said.