New Teacher Center Partnership with Kabcenell Family at Dahl Elementary and Slonaker Elementary Schools

Description of Project

Through a grant from the Kabcenell Family Foundation, the New Teacher Center @ UCSC and the Silicon Valley New Teacher Project are partnering with two school sites in San Jose in a high intensity mentor model of beginning teacher support.  Fully released from the classroom, mentors support a caseload of 10 new teachers, as opposed to the regular caseload of 15 teachers.  This enables the mentors to meet face-to-face with their beginning teachers more frequently and for longer sessions and to build grade level learning communities where the veteran teachers support and learn with the beginning teachers.  Because research shows that administrator support is one of the main reasons teachers stay in the profession, site administrators are supported through a principal coach in impacting the entire school system to promote improved student achievement and accelerated professional growth of new teachers. The participating schools are low performing schools as identified by the Academic Performance Index (API), CA’s most comprehensive measure of school performance.

Project Goals

The goal of this project is to improve student achievement in reading/language arts and math after two years of implementation.  We also intend to strengthen the collaboration of grade level teams as evidenced by increased frequency of grade level meeting time and collaboration for data analysis and instructional planning.

Partners Involved

Dahl Elementary (Franklin McKinley School District), Slonaker Elementary (Alum Rock School District, Silicon Valley New Teacher Project, and The New Teacher Center @ UCSC.

What is Working?

This being the first year of the project, relationship building has been a major focus.  The lower beginning teacher/advisor ratio has resulted in stronger ties with the teachers.  More time with the beginning teachers has allowed for more informal observations, which, in turn, have resulted in more teachable moments and ongoing support with focus students.  The mentors are being recognized as an integral part of the school staffs.  The principal coach is increasingly seen as a partner by as they look at grant implementation and at other school issues.

Ongoing mentoring work with the new teachers, as outlined in our Formative Assessment System (FAS) is on schedule and meeting/exceeding expectations.

Assessing Student Work (ASW), with the goal of determining student needs in relation to CA grade level content standards and planning for differentiated instruction, was accomplished with the whole staff at both schools.

Regular meetings with administrators have built trust and tighter connections to total staff development foci.  Plans for future staff development needs are being discussed in relation to the support that the mentors can address.

Contact with the on site Resource staff members has given further opportunity to learn more about and support the curriculum focus and implementation.  It has also been helpful in getting certain student needs and teacher concerns expedited.

Team Contacts

For information about this project, please contact any of the following individuals: