Last week we explored our return to greatness in education with our return to the school year. As part of that overall return to greatness, and as part of the return to the school year, how are new teachers being integrated? Does the current system breed success for these new professionals or do we simply throw them to the wolves and see who survives? We focus heavily on scaffolding our lessons and building upon knowledge and success with students, but how often do we do the same for our staff?
Expectations are high from the start with our new professionals, and that isn’t a bad thing. However, what are we doing to support them in meeting those expectations. Likewise, how much do our students suffer in the process. The Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development had a great conversation with Linda Darling-Hammond a few years ago on these challenges.
I would like to flip the conversation a bit. What if the ultimate goal for educators was to finally earn the privilege of having your own classroom? In our present factory model of education, teachers are the laborers. They make less pay than admin and their working conditions are less desirable as well. Yet, student success hinges so much on teacher effectiveness. What if we flipped this and the ultimate promotion in education was to actually have your own classroom and admin and support staff made less money and had less status? What if we truly honored teaching for the profession it is and held it in as high regard as doctors and lawyers (like many other countries do)?
In Texas there are billboards that read “Want to Teach? When Can You Start?” You don’t see “Want to Be A Brain Surgeon? When Can You Start?” Why do we allow the myth that anyone can teach to be perpetuated? While teaching isn’t brain-surgery in the literal sense, it is metaphorically. Teachers must find a way to build dendrites and make synaptic connections with an often unwilling audience in a hazardous environment and with insufficient training. This must change.
Natural Learning in an Unnatural World 
Research demonstrates that hiring teachers who have at least 1 to 2 years of experience is positively correlated with students achievement (e.g. Harris & Sass, 2007: http://www.caldercenter.org/sites/default/files/1001059_Teacher_Training.pdf) Of course, every teacher has to start somewhere, and without an apprentice-type model, new teachers must take command of their “own” classroom right away and are solely responsible for their students’ success or failure. So how do leaders support these new teachers? Instructional coaching, mentoring, and teaming – when done correctly – can help immensely. The less isolated the new teacher feels, the better. Additionally, leaders need to provide frequent and ongoing site-based professional development that individual needs (see: Marzano et al 2005, School Leadership that Works; and Blasé & Blasé, 1999: http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/35/3/349.abstract