BellSouth answers UF's call to support new teachers
GAINESVILLE, Fla.— A University of Florida project launched to reverse the critical teacher shortage and attrition rates of three inner-city Florida high schools is showing signs of success and moving into a new phase that will involve additional schools.
Supported by a $90,000 grant from BellSouth Telecommunications, BellSouth Foundation and BellSouth Pioneers, UF’s urban teacher induction and retention project provides a support network of novice and experienced mentor teachers within and across the inner-city schools in Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami to help raise the schools’ retention rates of those teachers.
“The teacher shortage is especially critical in urban high schools in Florida. Annual teacher turnover at struggling inner-city schools can exceed 40 percent, and about 15 percent of beginning teachers leave the profession after their first year,” says Wanda Lastrapes, a University of Florida education lecturer and UF Alliance project coordinator. “Under-resourced urban schools typically have difficulty supporting new teachers. We are creating a professional development model that encourages and prepares classroom teachers to remain in challenging urban schools.”
The participating schools – Jean Ribault High in Jacksonville, Maynard Evans High in Orlando and Miami Carol City High – are members of the UF Alliance partnership program, which links the university’s College of Education with six under-resourced urban high schools. There currently are 57 novice teachers, or those with three or fewer years of teaching experience, and 15 mentor teachers taking part in the project at the three participating schools. Last year, 65 percent of novice teachers and 95 percent of mentor teachers involved in the project returned to their respective schools to teach in the 2005-06 academic year.
Building on a successful pilot project during the 2003-04 academic year at Ribault High, Lastrapes and school leaders have developed a support network of novice and experienced mentor teachers within and across the three inner-city schools. This year, project leaders will expand the network of “professional learning communities” to the other three UF Alliance member schools – Jones High School in Orlando, William M. Raines High School in Jacksonville and Miami High School.
Lastrapes directs the effort with the aid of an experienced teacher-facilitator at each school. Teachers in their first three years of urban-school teaching receive support and advice on effective teaching strategies from trained mentor teachers at regular meetings at each school and at UF Alliance-sponsored retreats, where they can share their experiences with others teaching under similar circumstances.
Grant monies are used in part for professional development retreats for participating teachers at all schools. Alliance faculty are collaborating with the school districts of the network schools in helping teachers begin the process of attaining certification as mentor teachers from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. New initiatives this year entail expansion of a Web site to include a forum for online discussions for all novice teachers at the six Alliance partner schools.
The BellSouth grant also covers the expense of substitute teachers so novice and mentor teachers can regularly observe each other during the school day. BellSouth’s Florida company-employee volunteer organization, the BellSouth Pioneers, are providing support to the novice and mentor teachers in the network schools and exploring ways to become more engaged in classroom activities.
“BellSouth’s involvement in the UF Alliance project provides another way to continue our support for education,” says Marshall Criser III, president, BellSouth Florida. “Our volunteer hours and financial contributions provide needed support to new teachers and translate into better learning opportunities for the next generation of leaders.”
The UF Alliance sponsors field trips to campus and several recruitment activities for students interested in teaching careers, as well as a Summer Leadership Institute for teachers and administrators from its six member schools. The University of Florida also awards five $12,500 scholarships each year to top students from Alliance schools who choose to attend UF.
“By raising student achievement through effective teaching strategies at challenging urban high schools, we can improve the educational opportunities for at–risk students and help them become leaders in their schools, communities and their chosen professions,” Lastrapes says.
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Writer
Joy Rodgers, jrodgers@coe.ufl.edu, UF College of Education, News & Publications, (352) 392-0726, ext. 270
