Commissioner's School Visits
North Star Elementary School & Boettcher Teacher Program - Adams 12 Five Star Schools
April 7, 2009
Today I visited North Star Elementary School (Adams Five Star Schools) in Thornton to learn more about the Boettcher Teachers Program, a joint effort of the Boettcher Foundation, Public Education and Business Coalition and the University of Denver.
In a word, impressive!
The mission of the program is simple—to recruit, prepare and retain high-quality teachers for the “partner” schools. The effort is designed to place high-quality teachers in high-needs schools.
The model follows a “residency” approach similar to a doctor-in-training going through a medical residency. Future teachers train with a mentor teacher. Essentially, the trainee and the trainer share a classroom. The idea is that future teachers are trained in the same kinds of classrooms and school environments where they will be hired.
The trainees follow a five-year path. In the first year, the “fellows” learn to teach alongside their mentor teacher and they complete their licensure coursework. During this year, the fellows receive a $10,000 stipend and the districts cover the future teacher’s health insurance.
First-year Boettcher Teacher Program
teacher Bill Penney
In the second year, fellows are hired as teachers of record into partner schools and they complete their coursework for a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction (with a concentration in urban education). In the third through fifth year, the fellows complete their final years of teaching to fulfill their service agreement with the program.
North Star Elementary principal Barb Stallings is a supporter of the program. She said she gets “two for one” with the training. Not only does she have an extra teacher in those classrooms, but the mentor’s teaching practices improve because they are continually thinking about and explaining their practice. The
mentors also receive professional development through the program. “The mentors become very professional in their teaching,” said principal Stallings.
Chatting with fifth-grade Boettcher Teacher Program mentor
Jessica Grojean
and teacher-in-training Rachel Flaherty
The results of the program are noteworthy.
Among 73 teachers trained in the past five years, 98 percent stayed with the program. The program has worked hard to recruit male teachers into elementary school (where there is a shortage of male role models) and
to boost the numbers of math and science teachers (who are always in short supply).
In addition to the school principal, joining me to review the program and tour the school were Boettcher Foundation president and executive director Timothy Schulz, State Board of Education member Angelika Schroeder, Boettcher Teachers Program co-director Karen Lowenstein, Boettcher Teachers Program clinical professor Leah Pearson, PEBC president Rosann Ward, CDE Deputy Commissioner Ken Turner and CDE’s Deborah Blake, who heads alternative licensure at CDE.
Rachel Flaherty and Jessica Grojean teach fifth grade at
North
Star Elementary School
After our tour of two classrooms, we chatted about how to expand the model into rural school districts, where the need to support the pool of teacher talent is acute. We planned a follow-up meeting to continue the discussion based on this inspiring school visit.
First-grade teacher Bill Penney.
North Star Principal Barb Stallings
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For additional information, E-Mail: hegele_n@cde.state.co.us