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Quality teachers the focus of statewide conference in Springfield
Craig Chamberlain,
Education Editor
217-333-2894; cdchambe@uiuc.edu
2/24/2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. —
It’s a central premise of the “No Child Left Behind”
Act and proven in numerous studies: Quality teachers influence student
learning perhaps more than any other factor. Yet up to half of new teachers,
including many highly qualified teachers, leave the profession within
their first five years.
Attracting, developing and keeping those quality teachers will be the
focus of a statewide conference Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Hilton Springfield,
700 E. Adams St., attended by more than 170 Illinois educators and policymakers
seeking to share ideas and develop plans for local schools.
The keynote speaker will be Richard
Ingersoll, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania
and national expert on teacher retention and teacher quality.
Others on the program
include Randy Dunn, Illinois superintendent of education; Elliot Regenstein,
director of education reform for the Illinois governor’s office,
and Mary Clement, an education professor from Berry College who is an
expert on developing programs for new teachers.
Actress Brooke Haycock, an artist-in-residence with the Education Trust,
will present her one-woman show “Six Degrees of Preparation,”
exploring the human dimension of policies and practices that either
support or harm new teachers.
The conference, titled “Attracting
and Retaining Quality Teachers,” is the first organized by
the Illinois New Teacher Collaborative,
which started last summer. The statewide initiative involves almost
every group with an interest in Illinois education, including business,
higher education, school administrators, teachers’ unions and
the state board of education.
“The conference was put together to aid teams of teachers and
administrators who are looking to either design a program for new teachers
or improve the one they’ve got,” says Renee Clift, a professor
of education at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an organizer of the collaborative
and the conference.
“We’re trying to grow the state’s capacity for supporting
new teachers,” Clift said. “We also want to promote the
idea that supporting new teachers is everybody’s joint responsibility.
It crosses institutional and district lines.”
Participating teams will be coming from almost 50 schools from throughout
the state, including those in rural, urban and suburban districts. Also
participating will be representatives from government, foundations,
higher education and business.
The new teaching collaborative is committed to helping new teachers
quickly improve their skills and to reducing the high rate at which
they leave the profession, and the conference is a natural extension
of that commitment, Clift said. Also, the Illinois State Board of Education
has made mentoring and retention programs key parts of its strategic
plan, and the Legislature is being asked to increase funding for the
effort, she said.
The conference will open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday with speakers discussing
the situation in Illinois, followed by Haycock’s performance at
11:15 a.m., Ingersoll at 1:15 p.m., and Clement at 3 p.m., with small-group
discussions in between. Dunn and Regenstein will open the second day
with a state-level policy overview at 8:15 a.m., followed by discussions
through the morning and a lunch presentation that will close the conference.
The Partnership Board that directs the INTC includes representatives
from the Chicago Civic Committee, Illinois Association of School Administrators,
Illinois Business Roundtable, Illinois Center for the National Board
for Professional Teaching Standards, Illinois Education Association,
Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Principals Association, Illinois
State Board of Education and its regional offices, public and private
universities, two-year public colleges, and new teachers themselves.
The collaborative is funded with a $250,000 grant from the State Farm
Companies Foundation, and additional funding from the university. Its
work is coordinated with two related initiatives, one sponsored by the
Chicago-based Joyce Foundation and the other sponsored by the Illinois
Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools.
The INTC Web site includes a developing
collection of links to information, resources and programs for new teachers,
defined as those in their first four years of teaching. In the works,
according to Clift, is a pilot “e-mentoring” program that
would give new teachers the means to discuss their challenges and concerns
online with National Board Certified teachers (certified by the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards).
Other sections of the Web site provide helpful links for administrators,
mentors, and support organizations and providers, and work is underway
on a complete directory of all programs for new teachers in Illinois,
as well as links to national and regional programs, Clift said.
