Teacher Induction Program Keeps
CareerTech Teachers Teaching

Story by Ann Houston and Matt Kelly

According to a growing body of research, investing in a teacher who quits within the first few years is expensive – not only to taxpayers – but to students. There is also evidence that teachers who lack adequate initial preparation are more likely to leave the profession.

Since the success of the student depends in large part on the effectiveness of his or her instructor, both students and taxpayers are bearing an enormous cost due to teacher turnover – to the tune of $8,000 per teacher recruit who leaves the profession in the first three years, according to the Texas Center for Educational Research, 2000. In a 2001 study conducted by R.M. Ingersoll and published in the American Educational Research Journal, the annual number of teachers leaving the profession has surpassed the number of those entering it by an increasing amount.

“CareerTech instructors at technology centers are often professionals first who take real life work experience into the classroom as an instructor. They may not be comfortable in the classroom and that can lead to resignations,” Karen Warner said. Warner is the instructional services coordinator at the state CareerTech agency

Instructors at technology centers come into the classroom already as professionals, but usually not as a teaching professional, according to Warner. To provide a quality education, teachers need to be comfortable in the classroom.

“The induction system provides mentors for the teachers and a system to ‘bank’ assignments the inductees develop that they can use when they enroll in college courses,” Dr. Virginia Osgood said. Osgood is an associate professor at the University of Central Oklahoma. “They can also ‘bank’ time that they spend in the New Teacher Academy toward their introduction class.”

Often, new teachers become discouraged because they don’t know how they are doing, according to Osgood. Without the support of a mentor to help integrate how to teach with the expertise of the new instructor from his or her career in the first year or two, frustration can lead to teacher-drop outs. The student is the person who pays that price.

“Induction team members are taught ‘coaching’ skills and observation techniques so they can coach the teacher into finding his or her own solutions,” Osgood said.
Richard Joerger, Work, Community and Family Education assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, believes teacher induction is essential to student success, according to an article by the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education.

“Lack of support is one of the main reasons why teachers leave their teaching professions,” Joerger said. “Ironically, one of the best predictors of students’ achievement (beyond their own reading ability and previous grades) correlates to the length of teaching experience of their teachers.”

Now, in its third year of implementation, taxpayers and students are beginning to see the rewards of the induction system with representation from 22 of its 29 technology center districts. The most common degrees received through this program are trade and industrial occupation and health care.

“We (the CareerTech system) have 54 teacher inductees and 54 mentors who will be completing the program in May,” Warner said. “In the first year, we had 18 teacher inductees.”

“In the first year we had an 83 percent retention rate of teacher-graduates from the inductee program. The national retention of new teachers is 70 percent,” said Mary Jo Self. Self is an occupational education assistant professor at Oklahoma State University.

This is one of the reasons a team approach for mentoring new teachers in the classroom was designed.

Meeting the needs of all students at different levels and relating to or instructing each different level of student is probably the greatest challenge seen by many teachers, Self said. The system also works on the common challenges of time management for both teachers and mentors.

But, the positives of the induction system are many, according to a study by Osgood and Self.

“The most frequently mentioned positive response from our research questions of teacher inductees was that she or he realized they were not alone in the process,” Self said. “They felt good that there was a whole team and in some cases a whole school, rooting for that teacher’s success.”

For more information contact Karen Warner at 405 743-5538, or visit the website at; http://www.okcareertech.org/teacherinduction/