Introduction
People differ in their ability to cope with the conventional education system. Some students are unable to cope with not only the academic standards but also the behavioral standards in most of the conventional education institutions. The NOVA educational system was developed to meet the educational needs of such students. Most of the students in the NOVA schools have a form of disorder e.g. behavioral, psychosocial or even have some special needs (Project Achieve 1). However, some of the students are victims of bullying who find it hard to cope with the students in the conventional education system thus get accommodation in the NOVA schools. The students are entitled to quality education just like their counterparts in the conventional schools. They have a special program that meets their educational needs.
The inefficient/unfair aspect
There has been a problem of lack of teachers under the NOVA educational system. Teachers in this educational system tend to quit their profession in favor for less stressful careers or to other types of schools. The lack of sufficient as well as efficient teachers under the NOVA educational system poses a threat to the academic development and achievement of the students. This is unfair based on the fact that the students need quality teachers despite of their disorders. They are entitled to quality education just like their counterparts under the conventional education system. The most crucial aspect that has propagated this problem is that the NOVA educational system has not yet fully developed as far as teacher preparation and ongoing instructional professional development is concerned. To achieve this aspect, the adoption of teacher mentorship programs is required.
Mentorship
Mentoring entails a sustained relationship for supporting teachers in their early stage of their career. The mentor is a more experienced individual or rather a colleague with the knowledge of not only the needs but also the professional context of the other person-the mentee (Regins, and Kram 12). Mentorship is usually a time-defined process with significant emphasis on the development of the less experienced teachers’ educational/classroom practice and instructional skills. According to Wright, the role of the teacher mentor is to guide the development of the teacher mentee on effective teaching using several instructional pedagogies (16). The increase in teacher mentees is instrumental in the enhancement of the sufficient teaching staff in the region’s educational system.
Factors that have led to the increase teaching mentees
Less experienced teachers face several challenges, which are both personal and professional. These challenges include huge workloads, poor student behaviour as well as improper work planning. Other primary reasons that frustrate teachers are lack of professional support and poor working conditions. Most teachers who find it hard to cope with the seemingly hard working environment opt to quit the profession. This has led to a high teacher turnover in many districts in the region. An alarming and unsustainable number of teachers leave teaching during their first three years of working (Rieg, and Paquette 212). Teacher attrition, the phenomenon whereby teachers leave teaching for alternative careers, is the largest single factor determining the increase in demand of teachers not only in the NOVA educational system but also in other in the conventional education system.
According to Rinke, 40% of beginning teachers leave teaching during the initial seven years of their career with two thirds of them leaving within the first four years (650). Teacher attrition is the prevalent in low-income societies. Research has shown that 63,000 teaching positions that were vacant during the 1998/1999 academic year, 74% of them resulted from teachers leaving their profession prior to retirement (Rinke 651). This figure reflects both NOVA and the conventional education systems. The other factor that has led to the increase of teacher mentees is teacher burnout. Following the quitting of a significantly high number of teachers from the field, insufficient teachers remain in schools. In their efforts to meet the demands of the education system as well as to ensure good performance of their students, these teachers end up handling huge amounts of work. As a result, most of them get fatigued thus lowering their efficiency in their work. The shortage of teachers and the need for academic excellence in schools call for the retention of the available teaching staff. Owing to this, the NOVA educational system should embrace mentorship programs for new teachers, which will run through their initial stages of practicing their career.
Mentorship programs are essential in ensuring the sufficiency of educational practitioners who on the other hand ensure that students perform well in their academic work. Teacher mentees receive professional guidance from more experienced teachers. Boe, Cook and Sunderland cite mentorship model-the Colleague Model common in most educational institutions in the United States (22). This model employs grade level, physical proximity and grade area in matching mentors and mentees. Although the students under the NOVA educational system are assessed based on the grade, the model can also in the performance-based system. The model provides that the teacher mentee receive emotional support, assistance in student management as well as instructional support from the mentor. Regins and Kram points out that the mentor should also assist the teacher mentee in dealing with logistic concerns and help him/her in understanding the information systems of their school (401). Most mentees also require guidance in classroom management activities. The mentees believe that mentorship help them to develop a high self-esteem besides the development of confidence which are essential for the success of their career. Teacher mentees should well-equipped in dealing with the challenges that would be an obstacle for most beginning teachers who lack mentors for their career (Olivero 3).
In ensuring that the teacher mentees receive proper mentorship, their mentors should be experienced educational practitioners and skilled. In addition, they should have good interpersonal skills and demonstrate leadership qualities. The mentors need to proper understanding of the vital role that they play in the career development of their teacher mentees as well as their duties to support and challenge the mentees. For sufficient mentoring of new qualified teachers, the management of the NOVA educational system in the different institutions should choose mentors based on their knowledge and train them on mentoring skills. The training should also entail adult learning incorporated with the ability of the mentors to identify and properly communicate the best teaching practices to the teacher mentees. Well-trained mentors yield well-equipped teacher mentees. The mentees end up enjoying their teaching reducing their chances of leaving their profession. This translates to lower teacher attrition as well as turnover rates. Wright argues that the reduction of these rates in educational institutions leads to a reduction in the loss to taxpayers, educators and schools (467). However, the mentoring programs are deficient in that they do not provide extensive follow up of the teacher mentees to ensure that they could also be helpful to other teachers in the future. This calls for the devising of extensive follow up programs to ensure that the current teacher mentees exploit their full potential in the field rendering them helpful to upcoming teachers in the field.
The problem facing most mentoring programs is that the education system has been reluctant in not only adopting buts also formalizing the practice (in school where the programs have been partially adopted). Teacher mentees perform much better when formally mentored. Following the start of mentoring programs in Texas, 47% of public school teacher mentees worked with mentors in their field of specialization. Two-thirds of these teachers underwent formal mentoring by another teacher. These teachers yielded more improvement in their classroom teaching as compared to those who did not receive the formal treatment. Boe and Cook argue that for effective retention of teachers in most educational institutions, it is inevitable to formalize the mentoring programs in the state (23). It is will also enhance sufficiency of teaching staff in schools.
Conclusion
The students under the NOVA educational system are entitled to quality education. However, this has been threatened by the lack of enough teachers to take care of the students. The solution to this problem is ensuring that all the teachers are properly trained both before and after their recruitment. Besides the training and the recruitment of new qualified teachers, mentoring of the new teachers is essential to ensure the retention of such teachers in schools. Teacher mentees, through the mentorship programs, acquire opportunities career growth thus are able to retain their jobs. As a result, schools attain sufficient teaching staff, which translates to good academic performance of students.
Annotated Bibliography
Boe, Earnest. E., and Cook, Lawrence. “Teacher Turnover: Examining Exit Attrition,
Teaching Area Transfer & Schooling Migration.” Exceptional Children 75 (2008): 7-31. Print.
The article explores some of the factors that have led to the shortage of teachers not only in the NOVA educational system but also under the conventional education system. It also gives the differences between the causes in the conventional schools and schools with students who need some special attention. This gives a clear picture of why the problem of lack of enough teaching staff is greater than in the conventional schools. It is important for my study as it equips me with the knowledge of the different factors that have led to the lack of quality teaching staff in the NOVA schools.
Olivero, Trevor. Interview with Braille Monitor. June 2009. Web. 2 April 2013.
< https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm09/bm0906/bm090607.htm>.
This presents information about how mentorship can be carried out efficiently. It also gives some of the platforms that can be used in mentoring new teachers both before they take on their job and afterwards. It defines the kind of a relationship that should exist between a mentor and a mentee. It is thus an important source of information for this study as it enhances my understanding about the aspect of mentorship as far as solving the inefficiency in NOVA schools is concerned.
Project Achieve. Primary Target Populations. 2010. Web. 2 April 2013.
< http://www.projectachieve.us/implementation/primary-target-populations.html>.
This article is about the types of students who study under the NOVA educational system. It gives the different aspects that determine a student’s admission to the NOVA schools. Additionally, navigating through the website enhances one to have a good understanding of the what happens in NOVA schools, the challenges faced and how the various educational practitioners respond to the challenges they face. It presents a typical scenario of NOVA school thus important for this particular study.
Regins, Brown, and Kram, Kimberly. The Handbook of Mentoring at Work: Theory,
Research and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2007. Print.
This book provides a detailed explanation of all aspects of mentorship in the educational setting. Besides defining mentorship, it gives an explanation of the application of the practice in the academic sector especially in enhancing proper career development for teachers. Moreover, it offers a step by step guideline about how to provide quality mentorship in NOVA schools. It thus a rich source of information for the subject under study in this paper.
Rieg, Arnold, and Paquette, Richard. “Coping with Stress: An Investigation of Novice
225. Print.
The article gives the factors that cause stress to teachers especially in the classroom setting. Additionally, it provides some guidelines about how teachers should deal with work related stress. This is fundamental in ensuring that teachers do not leave the NOVA institutions and that the students in such schools have sufficient number of teachers for their educational or rather academic needs. Therefore, it is a good source of information as far as dealing with the problem of lack of sufficient teacher in NOVA schools is concerned.
Rinke, Clay R. “Career Trajectories of Urban Teachers: A Continuum of
Perspectives, Participation and Plans Shaping Retention in the Educational System.” Urban Education 46.4 (2011): 639-660. Print.
This article gives a detailed explanation of the measures that should be taken to retain teachers in their profession. It gives the reasons why most teachers leave teaching for other professions as well as why some teachers move from one school to another. It emphasizes that mentorship should be embraced to enhance the retention of teachers in any given school. The article is a rich source of information concerning teacher retention which is part of the solution for the inefficiency in NOVA schools.
Wright, Timothy. A Survey of Mentor/mentee Activities in the Beginning of Teacher
Induction Programs in Region IX. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas, 2010. Print.
This book explores the types of programs or rather activities that can be incorporated in a mentorship program for new teachers. It provides a guideline on how experienced teachers should handle new ones especially when dealing with students who have special needs. It is important for this paper since it enables me to understand the various factors that need to be put into consideration before starting a mentorship program. Additionally, it gives the significance of mentorship in equipping new teachers with the necessary skills for dealing with different types of students.
Works Cited
Boe, Earnest. E., and Cook, Lawrence. “Teacher Turnover: Examining Exit Attrition,
Teaching Area Transfer & Schooling Migration.” Exceptional Children 75 (2008): 7-31. Print.
Olivero, Trevor. Interview with Braille Monitor. June 2009. Web. 2 April 2013.
< https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm09/bm0906/bm090607.htm>.
Project Achieve. Primary Target Populations. 2010. Web. 2 April 2013.
< http://www.projectachieve.us/implementation/primary-target-populations.html>.
Regins, Brown, and Kram, Kimberly. The Handbook of Mentoring at Work: Theory,
Research and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2007. Print.
Rinke, Clay R. “Career Trajectories of Urban Teachers: A Continuum of
Perspectives, Participation and Plans Shaping Retention in the Educational System.” Urban Education 46.4 (2011): 639-660. Print.
Wright, Timothy. A Survey of Mentor/mentee Activities in the Beginning of Teacher
Induction Programs in Region IX. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas, 2010. Print.
