EHS Institute
Location
Hardwick
,
Massachusetts

USA
Information
TypeWeeklong summer training for 1st, 2nd and 3rd year teachers
Established2004
CampusRural
WebsiteOfficial Website

The EHS Institute for Teacher Induction is an induction training program primarily designed for first, second or third year public school teachers or seasoned teachers who are new to an urban district.[1] The Institute is offered to public school districts and is held every summer on the Eagle Hill School campus in Hardwick, MA. Since the first cohort in 2005 over 500 teachers from Massachusetts districts have completed the EHS Institute.[2] The training is funded by private organizations,[3] Massachusetts school departments and was a line budget item in the 2008 Massachusetts state budget.[4][5]

History

In the summer of 2005 the first cohort of 28 teachers from the Worcester (MA) Public Schools attended the inaugural EHS Institute.[6]

Context

Recent research on teacher attrition [7] suggests that as many as fifty percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years and that each year the gap between the number of teachers joining the profession and those leaving grows wider [8] Among teachers leaving the profession, lack of adequate preparation and lack of support from colleagues and administration top the list of reasons for new teachers to seek other professions within their first few years, even surpassing teachers’ concerns about salary and professional prestige. The effectiveness of pre-service preparation and mentoring programs has been well documented in the literature [9][10][11]

Studies of effective veteran teachers indicate that those teachers who remain in the profession tend to point to mentoring programs and capable school administrators who create supportive, challenging, and intellectually stimulating environments for teachers as the most important factors in their success [12][13] The importance of developing cultural models for teaching professionals and for establishing meaningful support networks based on professional activities is well established in the literature [14][15][16][17] and formed one of the central considerations for the development of the EHS Institute curriculum.

Early Outcomes from Pilot Program Data

Of the 2005 pilot group of 28 teachers from the Worcester Public Schools, 25 remain in teaching (89%), 21 are currently employed in the Worcester Public Schools (75%). Following the methodology of the Birkeland & Curtis (2006) study of the Boston Public Schools where those teachers who were “non-renewed” at the district's discretion were factored out of attrition numbers (4 teachers in the 2005 WPS pilot group), the cumulative attrition for the WPS pilot group at the end of three years is 11%. Birkeland & Curtis (2006) report cumulative attrition for first-, second-, and third-year teachers of 47% in the Boston Public Schools. The "Year 3 Report", compiled by the Worcester Public Schools [18] indicates that 93% of teachers from the Worcester Public Schools who attended the EHS Institute in 2005, 2006 or 2007 are still in teaching.

References

  1. ↑ Springfield Republican. Teachers Get Crash Course. Peter Goonan. August 3, 2008
  2. ↑ Eagle Hill School Institute for Teacher Induction (2009) Cohort Demographics of Institute Alumni. Hardwick, MA. Rebecca Foley Miller.
  3. ↑ "GS Fuller Foundation 2007 Grants".
  4. ↑ "FY08 Budget Amendments -- Education". www.mass.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-07-20.
  5. ↑ Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Worcester Teachers Attend Boot Camp. August 19, 2007
  6. ↑ Telegram and Gazette. New Teachers Praise Training at Eagle Hill. October 20, 2005.
  7. ↑ Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Keeping good teachers: Why it matters, what leaders can do. Educational Leadership 60(8), 6-13.
  8. ↑ Ingersoll, R. & Smith, M. The wrong solution to the teacher shortage. Educational Leadership 60(8), 30-33.
  9. ↑ Brewer, D. (1996). Career paths and quit decisions: Evidence from teaching. Journal of Labor Economics, 14(2), 313-339.
  10. ↑ Gritz, R. & Thoeboald, N. (1996). The effects of school district spending priorities on length of stay in teaching. Journal of Human Resources, 31(3), 477-512.
  11. ↑ Kelley, L. (2004). Why induction matters. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(5), 438-448.
  12. ↑ Williams, J. (2003). Why great teachers stay. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 71-74.
  13. ↑ Quartz, K. (2003). "Too angry to leave": Supporting new teachers' commitment to transform urban schools. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(2), 99-111
  14. ↑ Tabs, E. (2004). Teacher attrition and mobility: Results from the teacher follow-up survey, 2000-01. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
  15. ↑ Levine, A. (2006). Educating school teachers. Education Schools Project.
  16. ↑ Imig, D. & Imig, S. (2006). What do beginning teachers need to know? Journal of Teacher Education, 57(3), 286-291.
  17. ↑ Levin, B. & Rock, T. (2003). The effects of collaborative action research on preservice and experienced teacher partners in professional development schools. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(2), 135-149.
  18. ↑ Brophy, Mark. Eagle Hill Summer Institute for New Teacher Training in Collaboration with Worcester Public Schools and Worcester State College. Worcester Public Schools. August, 2007
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