2007 Legislative Session

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) released a report titled Induction into Learning Communities (http://www.nctaf.org/home.php). This research builds on their earlier report, No Dream Denied (2003), which re-directed the nation’s attention from teacher shortage to teacher retention. Induction into Learning Communities “examines data on induction’s impact on teacher retention and emerging information on induction’s effects on improving student learning, and goes in-depth on models of strong mentoring programs in the U.S. and comprehensive induction systems in other countries.”  Based on both a national and international review of successful induction programs, NCTAF found the following:

• Induction should be a stage in teacher development.
• Induction should support entry into a learning community.
• Mentoring is a useful component of induction, but it is only one element of a comprehensive induction system.
• External networks supported by online technologies can add value.
• Induction is a good investment. Teachers become more effective with experience and teacher effectiveness is directly related to P-12 student learning.  Highly effective teachers tend to stay in the profession longer, saving the district money for recruiting and creating a more stable learning environment for students.

Several years ago, the Minnesota Board of Teaching in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education commissioned eight teacher induction programs to be piloted across the state.  Although the results of those pilots were not widely disseminated, they supported the findings in the 2005 NCTAF report: engaging teachers from all experience levels in a learning community has a positive impact on teaching and learning. 

Action Needed:

All teachers new to the profession engage in a year-long induction and mentoring program. 

• The Minnesota legislature should increase funding to all school districts by 1%.  These monies would be used to provide structured induction and mentoring for all new teachers in the district. 
• Board of Teaching-approved teacher preparation programs would partner with districts to assist with new teacher induction.