Retaining Effective Teachers: A Guide for Hiring, Induction, and Support

About the Book

Retaining Effective Teachers provides all administrators with step-by-step strategies for hiring and keeping the best teachers. Teachers who serve on search committees and as teacher leaders will value the book as a guide for inducting and mentoring their new colleagues.
The author has summarized the most useful research on hiring, induction, mentoring, and teacher support. The many appendices can be used immediately to ask behavior-based interview questions that determine the strongest candidates. Those who lead the induction programs have ready-made lessons and resources for improving orientation, seminars, and mentor training. The research on working with millennial teachers provides insights into ways to support them as high-performing teachers. Excellent summaries of how to observe and supervise teachers provide school leaders with collaborative ways to support and retain their faculties.

This book presents a common-sense approach for developing district and school retention plans that will retain the most effective teachers needed in today’s and tomorrow’s schools. The strategies outlined in the book create help to create schools as high-quality workplaces that will retain teachers.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 – Creating a Retention Plan
Chapter 2 – This Generation of Teachers
Chapter 3 – Retention Begins with Hiring
Chapter 4 – Best Practices in Orientation
Chapter 5 – Mentoring Programs
Chapter 6 - Professional Development for the First Five Years
Chapter 7 – Supportive Administration, Supervision, and Evaluation
Chapter 8 –Developing Teacher Leaders
Chapter 9 – An Improved Workplace for Teachers
Chapter 10 – Teacher Longevity
Appendix A – Preliminary Interview Checklist
Appendix B - Question Bank for Early Elementary Positions
Appendix C – Question Bank for Upper Elementary Positions
Appendix D - Question Bank for Middle School
Appendix E – Question Bank for High School Positions
Appendix F – Question Bank for Special Areas
Appendix G – Question Bank for Special Education Interviews
Appendix H – Evaluation of Candidate Answers
Appendix I – Creating a Rubric to Evaluate Answers
Appendix J - Sample Survey of New Hires
Appendix K- Review of Annual Hiring
Appendix L – Evaluation of New Teacher Orientation
Appendix M – New Teacher Orientation Active Learning Strategies
Appendix N - Mentor Application
Appendix O - Evaluation of Mentor Training
Appendix P - Mentor and New Teacher Discussion List
Appendix Q - Evaluation of the Mentoring Program (Mentor’s Perspective)
Appendix R - Evaluation of the Mentoring Program (New Teacher’s Perspective)
Appendix S - New Teacher Professional Development Survey
Appendix T – Lesson Plan on Parent Communication and Conferences
Appendix U– Lesson Plan for New Teacher Workshop on Classroom Management
Appendix V – Year One Induction Workshop Evaluation
Appendix W – Observation Pre-conference Worksheet
Appendix X – Verbatim Notes
Appendix Y – Observation Post-conference Template
Appendix Z – First Classroom Walk-Through Checklist
Appendix AA – The Walk-Through Observation
Appendix BB – Panel Discussion on Earning a Masters Degree
Appendix CC – Teachers’ Needs and Wishes
Appendix DD – Parent Satisfaction Survey
Appendix EE – Survey of School Climate Teachers
Appendix FF – Four-step Approach for Classroom Management
Appendix GG – A Four-Step Instructional Plan
Appendix HH – Sample Quick Teacher Survey
Appendix II – Stress Management Survey
Appendix JJ – Time Management Activities
References
About the Author

About the Author :
Mary C. Clement has published widely in the field of k-12 teacher hiring and induction. She is a professor of teacher education at Berry College, in Georgia, and earned her doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Review :
Mary Clement writes in a very readable, clear manner that makes it easy for busy professionals to access the guidance she provides. While the information and ideas in her book are practical and approachable, she uses a solid base of deep research to support her suggestions. The Summary Points for Success at the end of each chapter and the many useful tools in the appendices alone would make this publication a useful reference for building and district level administrators. As I read the book, I found myself making notes of ideas and templates to use in my hiring and induction of teachers. I know I will share this book with fellow administrators in my district. I love and want to help children is a powerful expression, I hear from many teacher-candidates. Seeing-to-it that this declaration of love of children and high regard for teaching remains for years, even decades is what Retaining Effective Teachers: A Guide to Hiring, Induction, and Support will help schools and their teaching faculty achieve. Mary Clement has authored an excellent book that the leadership in every school should read in order to prevent their many excellent teachers from leaving the profession between 2-5 years.