Maintaining Personnel 1

Maintaining Personnel

Megan German

PEDU 628

Longwood University
Maintaining Personnel 2

According to Smith (2013), almost 15% [of teachers] leave teaching after one year... [

and] between 40 and 50% leave after fewer than 7 years (p. 106). Why, after years of college

training and paying so much money for tuition, would people choose a different career? Some of

the main reasons include lack of preparation, lack of support, and overwhelming levels of

pressure and stress brought on by students, parents, administration, and colleagues. These are all

issues that can be addressed through proper programs to help new and beginning teachers

continue to grow and receive emotional and professional support. It is not enough to just hire

good teachers; once the time is spent on recruiting and hiring quality teachers, it is important that

appropriate steps are taken to maintain those teachers through a variety of programs and

initiatives, including induction and mentor programs, staff development, and evaluation, all of

which are currently utilized by my school district.

The first, and most important, tool in assisting new teachers is an effective induction and

mentor program. These programs can be for beginning teachers, teachers new to a building or

district, or teachers who took a break from teaching and are now returning to the field. In

Chesapeake, the induction and mentor program is only available to first-year teachers and

teachers who are new to the district. For beginning teachers, their administrator pairs them with

a suitable mentor, and the mentor and mentee are expected to meet periodically, preferably

weekly, for the entire year to discuss emotional and professional needs of the mentee. The

mentor is expected to provide support and assistance, and to keep a log of all the days and times

they meet, as well as what the focus of the meeting is. In addition, there are 3-4 meetings each

year in which all the mentors and mentees meet with an administrator for discussion and advice.

For teachers who are experienced, but new to the district, the program is slightly less extensive.
Maintaining Personnel 3

These teachers are provided a mentor, but are only required to meet for the first 6 months, and

the main goal is to get the teacher accustomed to the goals and culture of the school.

While the program has plenty of benefits, as someone who went through this program, I

feel there are several adjustments that could be made to make the program more effective. First,

I would like to see better training and accountability for the trainers. The current training

slideshow simply lists good qualities of a mentor and the basic expectations which is not

substantial enough to prepare the mentors for their crucial roles in helping develop other

teachers. Also, the log completed by the mentor is not solid evidence of their fulfilment of their

duties. For example, when I was a mentee, my mentor would make up information to write

down and have me sign it. As a new teacher who was already intimidated by the workload and

adjusting to my new position, I did not have the courage to question my mentor, so I just did

what she asked, and really did not receive any benefits from the program. To eradicate this

issue, the log should be completed by the mentee in confidentiality, so central office knows if

they are receiving a thorough and proper mentorship. Another area that I would like to add to

the current program would be to provide mentors to teachers who are transferring in from

another school in the district, at least to help them get acquainted with the school, staff, and

culture of the school. The final area that I would add would be funding for substitutes to cover

new teachers classes, so that they can observe other teachers in their building and district, and

gain important knowledge on various classroom management and teaching techniques.

The next program used to help maintain teachers and keep them up-to-date on training is

staff development. After speaking with the Director of Staff Development, Dr. Dalphine Joppy,

I discovered that Chesapeake Public Schools has a very extensive staff development program.

Not only do they offer a large variety of professional development courses each Fall, Spring, and
Maintaining Personnel 4

Summer, but they also have several academies to provide growth and educational opportunities

to educators who aspire to learn more or move onto administration. For example, they have the

Leadership Exploration and Development Academy (LEDA), the Aspiring Principals Academy,

School Counselor Training Academy, Administrative Leadership Academy, and the Classified

Personnel Academy. Clearly, providing opportunities for professional growth and development

is a priority in my school district.

The one issue I have with this program; however, is how little these programs and

opportunities are advertised. While I was aware of the courses offered each semester, due to e-

mails we receive on this information, I had no idea that there was an entire website dedicated to

our professional development, nor was I aware of the various academies we had in Chesapeake.

Another great resource that is available to us, that I was unaware of, is a professional library that

has a wide variety of books that we can have sent directly to our home schools that provide

insight and training on many educational and leadership topics. The main change that I would

make to this program would be to advertise the programs and resources more, possibly through

in-service presentations or even just mentioning them in faculty meetings.

The last area of maintenance of teachers is the evaluation process. In Chesapeake,

beginning teachers are required to have three observations and a formative evaluation, by their

building administration, each year for their first three years of teaching. In addition, during the

first year, they also receive two observations and evaluations from a central office administrator.

During these observations, administrators will make note of the teachers alignment with the 7

standards outlined in our evaluation guide, as well as provide constructive feedback and advice

on possible improvements. After the first three years, teachers are to receive a formative

evaluation every third year, to ensure they are reaching educational expectations.
Maintaining Personnel 5

The evaluation process is the weakest area of maintenance that we have in Chesapeake.

While on paper, it sounds like they have a solid plan for evaluation, observations and

evaluations, at least in my experience, have been nothing more than an item to check off a to-do

list, and provide little-to-no meaningful feedback or suggestions for growth. According to Smith

(2014), an effective observation and evaluation should include a pre-observation conference, the

observation, and a post-observation conference. In the 6 years that Ive been in my district,

however, I have been at 5 different schools, had 15 observations, yet never received a pre-

observation conference, and only received 2 post-observation conferences. In addition, there

was very little meaningful, written feedback on my observations. As a teacher who is constantly

striving to improve and grow, this is a disservice to me, and the many other teachers who have

similar experiences. To improve this system, observations really need to be more organized and

treated more as tools to help growth rather than situations to sneak up on a teacher and catch

them performing poorly.

Overall, I feel like Chesapeake makes a solid effort to provide opportunities for

growth and improvement. The main concern I have is execution of the programs in place, as the

district often seem to have great ideas, in theory, but they are not followed-through properly, and

end up not providing the appropriate support and assistance, especially to new and beginning

teachers. If there would be more accountability on the mentors and administrators who are

tasked with providing support, growth, and assistance to these teachers, these programs would be

much more successful, and even further reduce turnover rates.

Maintaining Personnel 6

References

Lynch, Lisa. (2017, June 29). Personal interview.

Lowden, Kimberly (2017, June 29). Personal interview.

Joppy, Dalphine. (2017, June 29). Personal interview.

Smith, R. (2013). Human resource administration: A school-based perspective (4th ed.). New

York, NY: Routledge.