TY - JOUR
T1 - Building a Network of Support for New Teachers
AU - Wilkins, Elizabeth A.
AU - Clift, Renee T.
N1 - Funding Information:
In response to limited funding and lack of streamlined efforts to support new teachers, the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative (INTC) was created in fall 2004 as the first step in pro- viding a statewide effort to coordinate tasks, activities, and products related to induction programming. Funded in part by a grant from the State Farm Companies Foundation, representatives from both a broad consortium of education-related organizations across Illinois and the business community met to discuss and share ideas about how to build an infrastructure that would allow school districts to access resources and recruit and support new teachers, given financial constraints within the state. To ensure an ongoing collaborative process, the Partnership Board was created to guide all INTC activities, and it included a broad membership base with representatives from organizations such as the Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago Civic Committee, Illinois Business Roundtable, Regional Offices of Education, Illinois Association of School Administrators, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Illinois Alliance, new teachers, Illinois Principals Association, Illi- nois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, 2-year colleges, and public and private universities. The Executive Board, a smaller steering committee, was subsequently formed to provide streamlined guidance on policy and practices (see Table 1). The Partnership and Executive boards are racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse. This was a purposeful decision due to the di- versity within the state, collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools, and research about teachers most at risk for leaving the profession (e.g., special education teachers, teachers of
Publisher Copyright:
© 2007, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2007/1/1
Y1 - 2007/1/1
N2 - In response to the high attrition rate of new teachers, more and more induction programs are being implemented across the country. Current financial constraints, coupled with no systematic way to coordinate resources across schools and state organizations, present a challenge to many small or poorly funded schools and districts. In this article, we provide background information on the context of induction and mentoring in the United States, followed by a description of a statewide induction project that seeks to create a collaborative network of support across institutions in the absence of any state-funded program. An analysis of the issues and promises involved in such collaboration is provided that offers the field an important conceptual lens for thinking about induction and mentoring processes in new ways.
AB - In response to the high attrition rate of new teachers, more and more induction programs are being implemented across the country. Current financial constraints, coupled with no systematic way to coordinate resources across schools and state organizations, present a challenge to many small or poorly funded schools and districts. In this article, we provide background information on the context of induction and mentoring in the United States, followed by a description of a statewide induction project that seeks to create a collaborative network of support across institutions in the absence of any state-funded program. An analysis of the issues and promises involved in such collaboration is provided that offers the field an important conceptual lens for thinking about induction and mentoring processes in new ways.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77649338589&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77649338589&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01626620.2007.10463426
DO - 10.1080/01626620.2007.10463426
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77649338589
SN - 0162-6620
VL - 28
SP - 25
EP - 35
JO - Action in Teacher Education
JF - Action in Teacher Education
IS - 4
ER -