Induction for Teachers

1. Provide mentoring for beginning teachers

2. Provide an induction program that includes school/district-level orientation for teachers.

3. Ensure that teaching assignments are appropriate and manageable.

4. Provide clear professional expectations for what curriculum, instruction, and assessment entail.

5. Provide job-embedded professional development specifically for beginning teachers.


1. Provide mentoring for beginning teachers

Why It Is Important
  • Mentoring programs increase teacher retention and effectiveness, and improve student performance.
  • Mentoring programs contribute to the professional development and leadership capacity of mentors.
  • Induction and mentoring programs can help at-risk schools reduce teacher attrition that exacerbates the inequitable distribution of teachers across schools.

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Rigorously recruit mentors who meet the five standards set forth in the Mentor Standards for the Ohio Resident Educator Program.
  • Revisit Mentor Standards for the Ohio Resident Educator Program.
  • Make qualifications and quality of the mentor the highest priority; consider requiring mentors to be rated “accomplished” in their own evaluations.
  • Consider requiring mentors to demonstrate an understanding of the “developing” and “proficient” criteria that will be used in beginning teachers’ evaluations, to help them move from the former to the latter.
  • Consider the importance of mentors and beginning teachers teaching at the same school and in the same grade or subject; avoid having a mentor who is in supervisory role (e.g., department chair).

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Train and provide ongoing professional development for mentors.
  • Assist mentors in completing the required Instructional Mentoring and Resident Educator-1 trainings.
  • Provide mentors initial & ongoing training so that all beginning teachers receive the same high-quality mentoring.
  • Ensure mentors understand program expectations (e.g., responsibilities, frequency and protocol of meetings, topics to discuss, support required by beginning teachers, leadership responsibilities).
  • Consider utilizing the Mentor Educator Self-Assessment Tool.

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Match beginning teachers to mentors as closely as possible by school, grade level, and subject.
  • Match beginning teachers and mentors with a focus on them being able to easily meet formally and informally.
  • Match beginning teachers and mentors with a focus on them being able to engage in observation and co-teaching.
  • Choose mentors who are familiar with the school context and curriculum of the beginning teacher.

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Give explicit expectations for roles of the mentor, beginning teacher, program leaders, and school administrators.
  • Revisit the Mentor Standards for the Ohio Resident Educator Program.
  • Set minimum expectations for the relationship, including method to monitor that mentoring is occurring to ensure ongoing support.
  • Ensure that participants know what to expect from each other and who to approach about difficulties.
  • Organize and monitor the program at the school level.
  • Revisit the Ohio TBT 5-Step Process and ensure that all beginning teachers are part of a TBT.

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Ensure that mentors support teacher and student learning by providing feedback.
  • Continually emphasize the focus on the most important aspect of a teacher’s work: student learning.
  • Ensure that principals support the requirement that mentors of Resident Educators conduct at least three observations and that Resident Educators are supported in observing exemplary teachers at least two times.

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Provide time within the school day dedicated to beginning-teacher/mentor collaboration.
  • Consider going beyond the required one hour or one class period per week and supporting collaboration time of up to 2 1/2 hours each week.
  • Determine the best way to structure the required collaboration time.
  • Provide multiyear mentoring.

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Create a remediation plan for beginning teachers who do not meet the expectations of performance as determined during formative assessments and summative evaluations, and require structured organizational support and assistance.
  • Revisit the Ohio Continuum of Teacher Development, which is intended to be used to assist teachers and mentors in self-assessing, goal-setting, and identifying professional development needs.
  • Assess whether these supports for new teachers are increasing teacher effectiveness and retention.

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Provide compensation for mentor participation.
  • Work with the LEA treasurer to ensure funding, ideally from a stable source.
  • If compensation is not possible, consider providing mentors with other incentives, such as differentiated workloads.

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2. Provide an induction program that includes school/district-level orientation for teachers.

Why It Is Important
  • Formal, intentional, high-quality orientation helps novice teachers create a smooth transition into their new positions and creates leadership opportunities for experienced teachers while they remain teachers.
  • It provides beginning teachers with some initial information about the school and LEA policies, procedures, plans, and progress so that they can more quickly shift their focus onto instruction and student learning with this basic knowledge at hand.
  • It provides beginning teachers with the cultural contexts of the school and community that can positively influence pedagogy and elicit a deeper contextual understanding.

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Provide explanations of school and LEA policies and procedures as part of school-level orientation.
  • Revisit the Resident Educator Orientation PowerPoint presentation, and ensure that all Resident Educators view it.
  • Introduce teachers to lunch procedures, recess procedures, attendance policies, discipline policies/procedures, meeting schedules, school data/plans, and grading policies.

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Provide explanations of classroom teaching based on school context as part of school-level orientation.
Include introduction to standards, curriculum instruction, assessment framework or protocol, resources, extra teachers (for special education, English learners, art, etc.), instructional materials, professional culture (e.g., Ohio 5-Step TBT process), and knowledge about the particular special populations that are represented in the school.

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Differentiate the induction program to accommodate the needs of beginning teachers, as required by the Resident Educator Program.
  • Front-load induction activities for late-hire new teachers.
  • Consider the induction needs of new teachers from alternate-certification programs; as per HB 153, individuals seeking an alternative educator license are required to complete a pedagogical training institute or summer training institute operated by a nonprofit organization and approved by the Chancellor of the Board of Regents.

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3. Ensure that teaching assignments are appropriate and manageable.

Why It Is Important
  • Gauge whether beginning teachers are overwhelmed or unable to focus on teaching during their first years in the profession due to workload issues.
  • Ensure that all assignment decisions are in compliance with 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) highly qualified teacher requirements.

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Assign classes within the area of licensure.
Collect data about whether new teachers are satisfied with their assignments.

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Assign a manageable number of classes for which to prepare.
Encourage beginning teachers to focus on the quality of their instruction, rather than on the quantity of classes for which they need to prepare.

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Assign small class size.
  • Assess teacher satisfaction with class sizes and whether class sizes are affecting learning.
  • Conduct accurate hiring forecasts to prevent class sizes from becoming too large.

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4. Provide clear professional expectations for what curriculum, instruction, and assessment entail.

Why It Is Important
Clear communication of expectations sets the tone for professional feedback and fosters a sense of success in a profession in which constructive feedback can be rare.

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Incorporate graduated expectations for teachers depending on their levels of experience.
  • As per the Resident Educator Program standards, expectations should include:
  • Time to observe, collect data, and set goals
  • The use of formative assessment data to differentiate and individualize professional development
  • Feedback to accelerate growth, confidence, and competence of Resident Educators
  • Multiple opportunities for teachers to learn to apply theOhio Standards for the Teaching Profession and the Ohio Academic Content Standards in the context of their teaching assignments

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5. Provide job-embedded professional development specifically for beginning teachers.

Why It Is Important
  • Job-embedded induction can address the most pressing concerns and needs of new teachers.
  • Induction has the potential to be integrated into a system of individualized and differentiated professional development that meets the needs of all teachers.

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Provide common planning time with teachers in the same grade or teaching the same content.
  • Revisit the requirements of theOhio Improvement Process and the Ohio TBT 5-Step Process.
  • Encourage the sharing of best practices through TBTs.
  • Allow for meetings and collaboration with different teachers in TBTs (e.g., special education, English as a second language, art, physical education), ensuring that the needs of all students are being met.

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Provide teachers with adequate release time to regularly observe colleagues and be observed informally.
  • Allow beginning teachers to receive feedback on instructional practice in a nonevaluative way.
  • Provide mentors with release time to conduct at least three formative observations of beginning teachers, as required by the Ohio Resident Educator Program.

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Create a beginning-teacher network.
  • Allow beginning teachers opportunity to share concerns and collaborate.
  • Include beginning teachers in TBTs.

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Offer beginning teachers the opportunity to engage in ongoing classroom-based research.
Revisit the TBT 5-Step Process activity around collecting, charting, and analyzing pretest and posttest data, and evaluating their instructional strategies.

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Last Modified: 11/7/2019 12:11:35 PM