Scott Joftus and Brenda Maddox-Dolan, Alliance for Excellent Education
December 2002
The Alliance for Excellent Education's recent report recapitulates what many have already said regarding strategies for retaining teachers. Very much a derivative work, the Alliance even recycles its own materials. (The first third of the report's twenty-three pages simply restates the Alliance's previous recommendations regarding teacher quality: incentives for educators in high poverty schools, including tax credits, scholarships, and loan forgiveness; career ladders for teachers; a requirement that all secondary teachers have at least an academic major in their subject; and the provision of induction programs for new teachers.) The remainder of the report zeroes in on new induction programs, which the Alliance believes will save districts money lost due to high turnover rates, produce a happier and more effective teacher workforce, and give veteran teachers additional leadership opportunities. The report notes four challenges in developing effective induction programs: too few qualified mentors in schools with the highest teacher turnover, administrative difficulties in managing a program in a large school or a school with many new teachers, the practice of assigning new teachers the most difficult classes, and the need to support all new teachers including alternatively trained and non-credentialed teachers. Although offering no specific recommendations on how to overcome these obstacles, the report gives a brief overview of successful statewide and local induction programs, and an even briefer look at a few international approaches. The specifics, though, are apparently up to you. See http://www.all4ed.org/policymakers/NewTeacherExcellence/index.html.
