Colleagues to Count On: A Report on the 2003-2004 Beginning Teacher Induction Program in New Brunswick

by

Barbara A. Gill

Faculty of Education

University of New Brunswick

October 2004

This report is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Neil J. Scott, 1944-2004, member of the Beginning Teacher Induction Program Steering Committee from 1995 through 2003 and author or co-author of the yearly reports from 1995 to 2002

TABLE OF CONTENTS

   Executive Summary	

   Structure and Funding	

   Introduction to the Study	
      The Database	
      Defining Beginning Teachers	
      Mentor Recruitment	

   Professional Activities Supporting the BTIP	
      Mentor Training and Initial Orientation	
      District Organized Activities for Beginning Teachers	
      Activities Organized at the Local School Level	

   Participants Perspectives on the Program: Strengths and Weaknesses	
      Beginning Teachers Perspectives	
         Praise for the Program	
         Conditions Causing Problems	
         Suggestions for Improvement	
      Mentors Perspectives	
         Benefits to Mentors	
         Persistent Problems for Mentors	
         Suggestions for Improvement	
      Principals Perspectives	
      District Coordinators Perspectives	
         Positive Features:	
         Problems Encountered:	
         Suggestions for Improvement:	

   Follow-Up Study with the 2002-2003 Participant Volunteers	

   Conclusions	

   Recommendations	

   References	

Colleagues to Count On: A Report on the 2003-2004 Beginning Teacher Induction Program in New Brunswick

Executive Summary

            For the ninth consecutive year, the Department of Education, in cooperation with the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association and the University of New Brunswick, organized the Beginning Teacher Induction Program (BTIP) in all nine Anglophone school districts in the province. Two hundred and seventy eight beginning teachers in 131 schools were paired with experienced teachers who acted as their mentors for the school year. The number of beginning teachers increased this year by 18 over last year and the year before. The database for this report consists of survey responses from four groups of participants (%age returns in brackets): beginning teachers (68%), mentors (72%), principals (77%) and coordinators (88%).

            Thirty seven percent of the beginning teachers responding to the survey had previous teaching experience of ten months or more. This figure represents an increase of eight percent over 2002-2003.

            All eight coordinators reported they were able to recruit sufficient competent mentors. Seventy-seven percent of principals indicated they were able to recruit mentors easily but there was at least one principal in each district who found this task difficult or very difficult. Over 65% of this year’s mentors were new mentors. Of those mentors who had served before some had served five or six times before. Over 92% of this year’s mentors indicated they would be willing to serve again.

            Each district held an orientation workshop for beginning teachers, a training workshop for mentors and a closing celebration event. Additional meetings varied from district to district. Overall, beginning teachers found these workshops useful. In addition, the NBTA held a province-wide introductory workshop for beginning teachers and a province-wide workshop on supporting beginning teachers specifically for principals. Both NBTA workshops were very well received.

            The report analyses data on the participation rates of beginning teachers in various activities, seven classified as “low-risk” activities and five classified as “high-risk” activities. Participation rates in both categories are comparable to those of previous years, with some variation from district to district. Beginning teachers asked for more observations and feedback from their mentors, one of the activities classified as “high-risk”. A specific problem noted this year occurred for beginning teachers hired on less than a full FTE contract. These beginning teachers and mentors found it very challenging to find time to meet and participate in joint activities.

            All four participant groups supported the continuation of BTIP. Ninety-nine percent of mentors and one hundred percent of principals and district coordinators indicated their support. Ninety-three percent of beginning teachers responded positively to this statement, a decline of four percent over last year. Eighty-six percent of beginning teachers and ninety-three percent of mentors felt they had benefited personally from the program. Both beginning teachers and mentors identified a number of positive aspects of the program. Beginning teachers identified having a mentor and being able to visit other schools and classrooms as beneficial. Mentors felt they had benefited from the program by helping new teachers find their feet in the profession, sharing knowledge and expertise, learning new teaching strategies and techniques and having time for reflection on their own teaching. The most persistent problems noted, problems that have recurred over the past few years, were lack of time available to mentors and beginning teachers to participate in BTIP activities, incompatibility between the mentor’s and the beginning teacher’s teaching assignment and mentors and beginning teachers teaching in different schools.

            Principals responding to the survey were unanimous in recommending the continuation of BTIP. Ninety six percent felt they had received clear, comprehensive and timely information about the program and over 78% felt locating competent mentors had been easy, though principals warned that mentors could be overused. Principals were involved with the program in a number of ways, most especially in the matching of mentors and beginning teachers at the school level, providing orientation to the school and monitoring the progress of beginning teachers.

            All district coordinators felt they had received adequate support from the Department of Education, the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association and district offices. All but one coordinator felt the support they received from principals was adequate; the other coordinator rated the support from the principals as borderline. Coordinators noted a number of positive aspects to the program but warned that as more and more responsibilities were added to their workload the time available for BTIP became less and less, with the potential to weaken the program.

            The report concluded by noting many positive aspects of the program and outlining a number of strategies for strengthening and extending the program. The report also concluded that the program would become compromised if financial and personnel resources continue to be reduced.

Recommendations

1.   Consider making the program available to long-term supply teachers or create a parallel support system for supply teachers who are beginning teachers.

2.   Extend the program for more than one year.

3.   Recognize that beginning teacher induction is the responsibility of the whole school staff. Clarify the responsibilities of the school level in providing induction support for new teachers. Ensure there is someone in each school who will be responsible for the oversight of the program at the school level.

4.   Strengthen mentor training in the area of observing and giving constructive feedback. Clarify the roles of mentor as a support person and provider of formative feedback and the principal as the formal evaluator.

5.   Consider the workload of the district supervisor assigned the role of District Coordinator for BTIP. Where there are large numbers of new teachers in a district consider assigning two coordinators to the responsibility or delegating some responsibilities to the school level.

6.   Protect the resources the program already has and consider providing additional finances.

7.   Start planning now for an influx of new teachers into the province and an influx of new administrators.

8.   Create a BTIP website for all involved in the program. This site could have areas specifically for mentors, beginning teachers, principals and district coordinators and a general area for the general public. Resources, hints on getting started and other useful information could be provided. The site should include conferencing capabilities so program participants can exchange thoughts and ideas with others across the province. Such a website could help those in the more rural parts of the province (Gill & Betts, 2003).

9.   Ensure that all beginning teachers are placed in the best assignment possible. Beginning teachers’ classrooms should have adequate resources and plenty of materials. Beginning teachers should not be assigned too many supervision duties or the duties nobody else wants or encouraged to be over-involved in extra-curricular activities (Gill & Betts, 2003).

10. Investigate alternative patterns of mentoring for areas where it is not possible to pair a beginning teacher with a mentor who has a similar teaching assignment or where there is no one suitable mentor at the school site.

Colleagues to Count On: A Report on the 2003-2004 Beginning Teacher Induction Program in New Brunswick

            For the past nine years, since September 1995, the New Brunswick Beginning Teacher Induction Program (BTIP) has existed in all Anglophone districts of the province. This report is the ninth annual report prepared for the Department of Education in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Previous reports are available from the Department of Education, Fredericton, New Brunswick, (Scott, Smith & Grobe, 1995; Scott & Compton, 1996; Scott, 1997; Scott, 1998; Scott & Surettee, 1999; Scott & Doherty, 2000; Scott & Mirchandani, 2001; Scott & Mirchandani, 2002; Gill & Betts, 2003). The 1995-2002 reports are also available from the ERIC Database (Resources in Education) and the 2003 report is available at http://www.unb.ca/centres/nbcea/publicas.html.

            The purpose of this report is to present the results from the 2003-2004 survey of the Beginning Teacher Induction Program. The survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data from District Coordinators, Beginning Teachers, Mentors and Principals involved in the program from the nine Anglophone school districts in New Brunswick. This report includes comparisons with former years.

Structure and Funding

            A Steering Committee, chaired by Mark Holland, a curriculum supervisor in the Department of Education, guides the Beginning Teacher Induction Program. The remainder of the committee consists of a representative from the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association (NBTA), a Faculty of Education member from the University of New Brunswick, and representatives from each of the nine Anglophone school districts. These representatives are usually supervisors who coordinate the program in their districts (Scott & Mirchandani, 2002).

            Both the Department of Education and the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association provide funding for the BTIP. The Department of Education allocates $500 for each pair of participants, based on full-time equivalent (FTE) beginning teachers. This money must be spent by March 31, the end of the budgetary year. District Coordinators allocate this money to mentor/beginning teacher pairs. This money is intended for the professional development of the beginning teachers so they can participate in activities that focus on the skills, knowledge and attitudes required of them as teachers. Such activities might include release time to visit each other’s classrooms, or to meet to plan jointly, or to prepare for upcoming events like parent interviews or report cards. The money is not intended for the purchase of school supplies.

            The New Brunswick Teachers’ Association provides a lump sum of money to be divided among each beginning teacher/mentor pair, based on FTE beginning teachers. The money is available until the end of June so covers the period of time after the Department of Education money has been spent. The NBTA funding is a fixed amount, $30,000, so the amount available to each beginning teacher/mentor pair varies from year to year, depending on the number of pairs each year (Scott & Mirchandani, 2002). This year the NBTA supported 253.6 FTEs so the allocation per pair was $118.30 (Nancy Roach, personal communication, August 5, 2004). The NBTA forwards the money to the districts and the districts develop criteria for spending the money.

Introduction to the Study

The Database

            In May 2004, all beginning teachers, mentors, principals and district coordinators involved in the Beginning Teacher Induction Program received questionnaires asking for feedback on their experiences with the program. Table 1 shows the number and percentage returns for the survey. District coordinators and the Department of Education provided the numbers used to compile this table. The total numbers of beginning teachers in this table represents actual individuals whereas the NBTA numbers are calculated using FTE and excludes any long term supply teachers included in various districts. Not all beginning teachers received full time contracts during the 2003-2004 school year. Long term supply teachers are not eligible for financial support from the NBTA (Nancy Roach, personal communication, October 23, 2003).

Table 1

Number and percentage returns of participants in the BTIP survey

Categories of participants

_____________________________________________________________________

                        beginning teachers    mentors          principals       coordinators

# of participants          278                   278                 131                         9

# of survey returns      190                   200                102                         8

% of returns                 68%                72%             77%                      88%

            Table 2, based on the table presented in the 2002 Report (Scott & Mirchandi, 2002, p.3), provides a comparison of the number of participants in each year since the Beginning Teacher Induction Program became a province-wide initiative in 1995.

Table 2

A nine-year comparison of BTIP participant numbers

  Beginning Teachers             Mentors         Principals/Schools     Coordinators

1995-1996      156                  147                              96                                12

1996-1997      125                  125                              78                                12

1996-1998      210                  210                              108                              12

1998-1999      240                  240                              130                              12

1999-2000      266                  263                              150                              11

2000-2001      300                  300                              134                              9

2001-2002      261                  261                              130                              9

2002-2003      260                  260                              125                              9

2003-2004      278                  278                              131                              9

            Table 3 shows the distribution of beginning teachers in the program as reported by district coordinators.

Table 3

Distribution of beginning teachers among the Anglophone school districts

District                                               Region                                    # of participants

2                      Moncton, Sackville, Salisbury                                                67

6                      Rothsay, Hampton, Sussex                                                     17

8                      Saint John, St. Martins, Westfield                                          52

10                    St. Stephen, St. Andrews, Grand Manan                                30

14                    Nackawic, Woodstock, Hartland, Perth-Andover                  16

15                    Bathurst, Dalhousie, Campbellton                                          16

16                    Miramichi City, Rexton, Richibucto, Blackville                    30

17                    Oromocto, Chipman, Minto, Cambridge Narrows                 24

18                    Fredericton, Harvey Station, Keswick Ridge, Doaktown       26

                                                                                                            Total   278

Defining Beginning Teachers

The Beginning Teacher Induction program is designed for teachers new to the profession. In response to the question “Have you taught previously for a continuous ten-month period?” 72 (37.3%) indicated they had. This result indicates an increase from last year’s low of 51 (29.7%) and reverses the declining trend of previous years. The largest number of beginning teachers indicating they had previous teaching experience (18: 25%) was in District 2 with the others spread across all districts. Participants who fell in this category commented that they had considerable experience as supply teachers or were teachers new to the province and were encouraged to participate in the program.

Mentor Recruitment

            The responsibility for recruiting mentors rests with the school principals, in consultation with district coordinators (A Guide to the New Brunswick Beginning Teacher Induction Program: A Partnership That Builds Success). Eighty (77.7%) principals indicated it was easy or very easy to recruit competent mentors in their schools. This number represents a solid percentage of principals who can recruit competent mentors. However, there was at least one principal in every district who found the task difficult or very difficult and the comments of those principals experiencing difficulty are worth noting for the specific problems they address:

Too many in the program. More beginning teachers on staff than experienced. [Principal, District 18].

Especially in the area of French where there are many new teachers. [Principal, District 17].

            A couple of the comments from principals who found the task easy or very easy also indicate potential problems:

However they are not always the people who should be mentors [Principal, District 14].

In years when we have B.Ed student interns it becomes more difficult [Principal, District 8].

As more experienced teachers retire, recruiting mentors will become more and more of a challenge. If universities increase their enrollment in Bachelor of Education programs the pressures on schools will increase.

Professional Activities Supporting the BTIP

            The responsibility for organizing professional activities within each district rests with the district coordinators. A Guide for the New Brunswick Beginning Teacher Induction Program lists six general goals for the program: orientation, support, acquisition and refinement of teaching skills, developing a philosophy of education, self-assessment and self-evaluation, and retention of beginning teachers. The district coordinators plan workshops and other activities to meet these goals. In addition, district coordinators are expected to conduct mentor training. The New Brunswick Teachers’ Association organizes province-wide workshops. This year’s workshop, Supporting Beginning Teachers: Our Most Valuable Resource, held on October 27, 2003, provided information specifically for school principals (Nancy Roach, personal communication, August 5, 2004). A principal who attended this workshop commented:

The conference I attended at NBTA in the fall with Nancy was great---very helpful [Principal, District 10].

The NBTA also develops and distributes The Beginning Teachers’ Handbook to all beginning teachers. This handbook addresses such topics as becoming a professional, preparing for the first days of school, classroom management, the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association and the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation and various contract and legal issues (Nancy Roach, personal communication, August 5, 2004).

Mentor Training and Initial Orientation

            All districts held a training session for mentors. Of the 177 mentors who attended their district workshop, 163 (91%) rated the workshop as useful or very useful. Of the 200 mentors responding to the survey, 69 (34.5%) had served as mentors before. Thirty (55.6%) of this year’s mentors served once before with 11 (20.4%) mentors serving twice before and 11 (20.4%) serving three times before. One hundred and eighty (92.8%) mentors indicated they would serve as mentors again, making comments such as:

I enjoyed my experience a great deal even after 30 years teaching, mentoring a new teacher continues to enhance my teaching and I regard it as a learning experience [Mentor, District 8].

I, myself, benefited from the BTIP program and re-lived my positive BTIP program experience this year being a mentor [Mentor, District 2].

Those mentors who did not wish to serve as mentors again or who were unsure wrote comments such as:

Retiring June 30, 2004!!! [Mentor, District 17].

I would LOVE to but after 34 years of teaching---it’s time to retire and let some more new teachers enjoy this profession! [Mentor, District 16].

I have done it 3 years in a row, it is time someone new try it [Mentor, District 8].

District Organized Activities for Beginning Teachers

            District coordinators arranged a variety of activities to support the Beginning Teacher Induction Program. All districts held an introductory workshop, a mentor training workshop and a final celebration event. Other workshop topics varied from district to district and included such topics as Classroom Management, Brain Research, Best Assessment Practices and various curriculum topics. The NBTA organized and delivered workshops in five districts, on professionalism, professional development and the professional association. The NBTA also provided a workshop session in one school district for principals on supporting beginning teachers. An all day session on the same topic was provided at the provincial level (Nancy Roach, personal communication, August 5, 2004). Overall, beginning teachers rated these workshops as either “useful” or “very useful”, however some beginning teachers added comments related to the scheduling of these workshops, mentioning either clashes with previously scheduled commitments or alternative preferences for meeting times, for example, Saturday morning rather than after school.

Activities Organized at the Local School Level

            The Beginning Teacher Survey listed fourteen different activities including meeting the mentor in formal or informal settings, student assessment, curriculum concerns, assistance with school policies, discipline issues and meeting with other beginning teachers. Beginning teachers were asked to indicate the frequency with which they participated in these activities. Tables, 4, 5 and 6 show percentage participation rates in these activities. Percentages for the years 2000 through 2002 are listed as reported in the 2002 report (Scott & Mirchandani, 2002, p. 9) and percentages for 2003 are listed as reported in the 2003 report (Gill & Betts, 2003, p.7).

Lower-risk Activities

            As in previous reports, these activities have been divided into “lower-risk” and “higher-risk” activities so that comparisons can be made with previous years. Table 4 lists the participation rates for lower-risk activities from 2000-2004. It is disappointing to see the percentages in the first column “0” indicating that a small number of beginning teachers are not participating in these activities with their mentors. However, as discussed later in the report, there were at least six beginning teachers hired on less than one full FTE. These beginning teachers experienced specific problems meeting with their mentors.

Table 4

A percentage comparison of beginning teachers’ participation for lower-risk professional activities during induction programs from 2000 to 2004

                                                                                                -------Frequency--------