May 2009

By Raven L. Hill

The upside of a down economy
Some experts say it's an ideal time to recruit industry talent to the classroom

It took Lottie Peppers 10 years to find her way back to school.

As an undergraduate pursuing a bachelor of science degree in biology at Texas Tech University, Peppers had considered a teaching career. However, a fellowship program that enabled her to do graduate-level research work inspired her to take a different path. After college, Peppers went to work for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and later for a pharmaceutical company in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

Peppers admits her career in scientific research was fulfilling. However, last year, when her husband landed a job in the Dallas area and her employment options in the research field seemed limited, Peppers decided to revisit her long-lost ambition to teach. She enrolled in the Texas Teaching Fellows’ alternative certification program (ACP) and became a high school science teacher at a high-needs campus in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. Texas Teaching Fellows is an affiliate of The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that aims to recruit more teachers into high-needs schools.

Peppers says the ACP, with its collaborative meetings between other first- and second-year teachers and assistant principals, proved invaluable to her successful career transition.

“The district has been helpful, but the single-most helpful has been the ACP,” says Peppers, a biology and chemistry teacher at Early College High School. “The students have been very responsive to the techniques I learned in the program.”

District officials around Texas say they need more teachers like Peppers — those with solid work experience in scientific, mathematical and technical fields. The good news is that now might be the best time to find them. The economic downturn has left countless professionals out of work as some of the state’s largest employers, including Dell and Texas Instruments, downsize their workforces.

The private sector’s loss could be a gain for public schools.

“It is an ideal time to pick up these people,” says Ed Fuller, a University of Texas researcher who has studied teacher quality and turnover rates. “They have great practical experience. If we can help them along, give them enough training and support, it can be a valuable asset to education in Texas.”

Texas schools face an acute shortage of well-qualified and adequately prepared science and math teachers, Fuller says. According to a Texas Business and Education Coalition and Texas Instruments study conducted by Fuller, the state is recruiting only half of the math teachers and less than a quarter of the science teachers it needs. In high school science, the shortage of science teachers has increased by more than 80 percent since 2004. Five-year projections show no signs of the trend slowing down.

While there is no “silver bullet” to rectify this problem, the study suggests several statewide policy changes, including:

In the meantime, districts are working on ways to recruit and retain math and science teachers. Many have set their sights on offering enhanced mentoring and induction programs and paying closer attention to the needs of new hires who are new to teaching.

“Just as learning isn’t one-size-fits-all, we have to adapt to who we’re providing professional development to,” says Michelle Leake, coordinator of district initiatives and grant evaluations in Fort Worth ISD.

While traditional teacher preparation programs tend to result in better retention rates, alternative certification programs (ACP) now produce most of the state’s math and science teachers. With better retention rates, school districts could save between $3.5 million and $7 million annually on training math teachers, and between $2.7 million and $5.4 million annually on science teachers, according to Fuller’s research.

He adds that recovered funds could cover mentoring and induction for all new math and science teachers.

Many people who opt for second careers in teaching go through alternative certification programs. The programs differ in cost and requirements. Some programs, like the highly selective Texas Teaching Fellows, require practical experience. But many do not.

Fort Worth ISD has adapted its induction and training strategies from an “everything at once” approach in the beginning of the year to a “just in time” model with sessions offered throughout the school year. According to Leake, the support that new teachers want before school starts is often very different from what they ask for after they’ve completed their first six weeks.

The impact of good mentoring on new hires cannot be understated, she adds.

“When you look at the impact of mentoring — when it’s structured and based on observation and reflection — it has a small, positive impact on their decision to remain in the district,” she says. “But if they have a ‘drive-by’ mentor who offers little support and guidance, it has a much larger, negative impact.”

Pasadena ISD is working with the Texas Education Agency to revamp the district’s mentoring initiatives. TEA’s Beginning Teacher Induction and Mentoring grant has enabled Pasadena ISD to give every new teacher a mentor, provide additional training and support to mentors, and increase the stipend mentors receive for participating.

“That has paid off in the kind of support they’re giving new teachers,” says Diana Gomez, the district’s coordinator of mentoring. “We’ve gone from having lots of ‘buddies’ to having mentors who can be true coaches.”

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD is one of many districts that offers induction programs for teachers who are either new to the district or to the profession. The district hosts a New Teacher Induction Program that includes time for new teachers to discuss skill improvement with their mentors, and for all grade-level core content teachers to discuss instruction and units as a team.

“When we look at our new teachers’ perceptions of the support they receive, the team-planning process is right up there in the top three, along with the time they have with their mentors,” says Robin McGlohn, coordinator of the staff development department.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD has used TEA grants to train mentors on observation strategies and on providing feedback to novice teachers, to provide retention stipends, and to provide extra coaching support in math and science. The district also has created an ACP mentoring institute to better train mentors.

“[ACP grads] have worked in a specialized field, and they come with a wealth of experience. We want our mentors to maximize and build on that,” McGlohn says. “While many may be new teachers, they’re not necessarily inexperienced professionals.”

Still, districts must keep in mind that ACP candidates are in transition, and ramping up in a new job — no matter the industry — is “really a tough place to be,” McGlohn says.

Teaching is no small business
Wes Cox, a geometry teacher at Hendrickson High School in Pflugerville ISD, began his professional career as a small business owner. After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, he started an outdoors adventure company. A year later, he joined a Christian ministry program that works with children and teenagers. That experience led him to switch professional tracks and pursue a full-time teaching career. He was accepted into the Texas Teaching Fellows.

“I wanted to change lives,” says Cox, who adds that teaching summer school through the Texas Teaching Fellows program provided the best preparation. He spent mornings working with a veteran teacher and afternoons in training.

“You start out as the [other teacher’s] sidekick,” Cox says. “By the end, I was planning entire lessons. When I walked into Hendrickson, I had a good idea of not only how to manage a classroom, but a realistic expectation of what it would take to be an effective teacher.”

This year, Cox received the district’s Rookie Teacher of the Year Award for high schools.

Keeping the focus on students is vital for any mentoring or induction program to succeed, says Julie Greenberg, a senior policy analyst at the National Council on Teaching Quality in Washington, D.C.

“If induction isn’t generating better [student] performance, then we’ve got to figure out something else to generate performance gains,” Greenberg says. “It’s not enough to just make [new] teachers happy. In some way, shape or form, you have to look at the performance of the kids.”

RAVEN L. HILL is a writer based in Maryland. She specializes in education reporting and formerly worked at the Austin American-Statesman.


Getting support
from state, federal governments
President Barack Obama has vowed to make improving teacher quality one of his administration’s hallmarks. School districts nationwide are hoping that funding from Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will help them fulfill the President’s vow at the local level. Approximately $100 billion of the $787 billion stimulus funds are earmarked for public education. In Texas, that translates to $6 billion to school districts across the state.

“We’re delighted to have the President’s agenda pointed toward public schools in this way,” says Susan Holley, associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators.

Districts can submit proposals to the U.S. Department of Education to fund specific projects. The stimulus funds will only be available for, at most, three years. The U.S. Department of Education guidelines dictate that school district proposals for funding must address long-term reforms in one of the following areas:

Texas legislators also are looking at ways to improve teacher quality. Several bills have been proposed during this legislative session that would provide annual stipends to teacher-mentors; create scholarships to encourage students to pursue math and science teaching careers; and improve teacher-mentor assignments and coaching.

Ed Fuller, a researcher at The University of Texas, says the state should pursue increased stipends or forgivable loans to put more qualified teachers in the pipeline, and that districts should pursue stimulus funds for innovative teacher prep programs, such as urban teacher residencies.