Schools using mentors to support new teachers


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Bringing in new teachers is one challenge for most school districts. Keeping them trained while they’re educating their students is another.

Carson City School District’s Collaborative Assistance and Reliable Educator Support (CARES) program is dedicated to helping novice and veteran teachers alike.

Merri Pray, professional learning and family engagement coordinator for CCSD, told trustees at their June 13 meeting the new data from CARES’ 2022-23 program revealed mentorships between experienced and younger teachers had to be “reimagined.”

“We used to have one mentor per site,” Pray said. “This year, we had 67 new hired teachers that were paired with 49 mentor teachers.”

Of this total, two new teachers declined to take part in a mentorship, which consisted of first- and second-year mentees. Forty mentors attended a two-day paid training program last summer. Mentors also attended a two-hour paid training opportunity that allowed them to work with others across the district in program improvement, training for coaching and collaboration. Staff members covered 212 hours in training. Topics included instructional planning and classroom culture and management, social-emotional learning and literacy action plan.

“If our goal was to spend the bulk of our time increasing instructional capacity of our new teachers, I feel our mentors are working really hard to make sure we’re doing that,” Pray said.

Ultimately, teachers gradually worked on transitioning to instruction and goal-setting for their classroom strategies for success, Pray said.

Pray also reported on teacher attrition for the past five years. In 2018-19, Carson City had 29 teachers resign, with 15 of those still on probation and 21 having spent five years or less in the district. Those numbers fluctuate up to the current year, with a total of 53 resignations in 2021-22, with 13 probationary teachers resigning and 31 of those with five or fewer years.

During a similar presentation in May 2022, when asked for some of the reasons why teachers were leaving, Pray responded most had said there was nothing that could have been done for them to stay.

This past school year, there were 26 resignations. Three probationary teachers were second-year educators not taking part in a formal mentorship program and one left before school started in August, Pray said. One 2022-23 new hire resigned to leave for California.

Based on the data and conversations with teachers, future support could include two goal-setting cycles that offer flexibility for new teachers to observe master teachers, a combined new teacher academy and mentor roundtable, site-based roundtables and secondary or specialized mentors for special education, district departments or Career and Technical Education.

“I think it’s positive, it’s exciting and I think it’s needed,” Trustee Joe Cacioppo told Pray. “We ask a lot of our staff at all levels and you need someone to go to and ask for help sometimes.”