Rochelle C. Bobo
September 18, 2008
I am a resident of Lexington and an employee of Lexington City Schools. It is important that I share background information about Lexington to bring clarity to why I have chosen to do my dissertation on virtual mentoring.
The city of Lexington has a population of 20,121. We are known as the Barbecue Captial and we host the Barbecue Festival the last Saturday of October yearly. We are located in Davidson County and are one of three school systems. There are six schools in our system. We have approximately 460 employees, of which 254 are certified. Our school system‘s drop out rate for 2006-2007 was 5.52% compared to the state rate of 5.24%. Over the age of 25, 30% of city residents are high school graduates, with only 10% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. Grandparents are the main caregivers for 30% of our students. The number of students that speak a language other than English at home city wide is less than 14%. The per capita income is $15,310 with 29% of our population living below the poverty level. Historically, we have had a heavy manufacturing base, but due to plant closings, we have a high unemployment rate of 6.7% compared to the states 6.2% as of June, 2008. This has a great economic impact on the community, as well as to many families of students that attend our schools.
The system serves approximately 3089 students. The ethnic breakdowns are: less than 1% American Indian, 6% Asian, 14% Hispanic, 43% African American, 24% White and 3% Multi-Racial. We qualify for the Title I designation system wide but the high school does not receive Title I funding.. Our exceptional children and second language students are mainstreamed while. our academically gifted students are grouped together for accelerated instruction in all core areas, including pre-Algebra in grade 7 and Algebra 1 in grade 8.
The following groups of students do not have enough students to qualify as a subgroup for AYP: visually impaired, hearing impaired, autistic, severe/profound, multi-handicapped, migrant and American Indian.
The teacher turnover rate is another factor that supports the need for research on my dissertation topic. It has ranged from 16.5 to 21.7 over a five year period. The highest percentage of those leaving do so to teach in another North Carolina Public School System.
According to Ingersoll (2004), “The failure to ensure that the nation’s classrooms, especially those in disadvantaged schools, are all staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most important problems in contemporary American education.” He further states, “significant numbers of those who depart from their jobs in these schools report that they are hampered by inadequate support from the school administration, too many intrusions on classroom teaching time, student discipline problems and limited faculty input into school decision-making.”
My interpretation of the quote above as well as that of other literature, is that teachers need to feel more supported and the students in the disadvantaged schools are also harder to teach. I understand economically disadvantaged children; as well as, those of color historically come to school with very limited experiences. These assumptions are the basis for my question, “Is Virtual Mentoring More Effective Than the Face-to-Model?”
The State of North Carolina provides paid mentors for beginning teachers in their first two years of teaching. A mentor must have at least four years of teaching experience and an recommendation from their principal. They are then required to participate in a formal training. The mentors is required to consult with the mentee at least once per week to provide the needed support.
The Center for Teaching Quality which was founded in 1999 to improve student learning and advance the teaching profession by cultivating teacher leadership, has a invited Lexington City Schools to participate in a newly formed Virtual Mentoring initiative. The data gathered from The initiative is financed We were selected because of our inability to consistently meet state achievement goals. This means that first and second year teachers in the Lexington City School system will have an opportunity to experience both models, if they so choose.
I am passionate about the welfare of children. If you pay close attention to the demographic information that was provided; it is easy to ascertain that it is highly likely that many of the inner city students are products of struggling families. I want the students of LCS to have a fighting chance. I know from personal experience that many people stereotype our students and have low expectations for them. They must succeed against all odds if they are to live and if Lexington is to thrive. It is imperative that we experience decreases in the teacher turnover and drop out rates. I long to see an increase in academic achievement, as well. It is overwhelming when I focus on all of the negatives, so I have chosen to concentrate my energy on an area where I have influence. I am responsible for hiring teachers and ensuring that they receive adequate support. Mentoring is a huge piece of the support provided to beginning teachers and it will be great if I can gather enough data to determine if the virtual mentoring model of is more beneficial than the face to face model.
REFERENCES
Ingersoll, R. M. (2004). Why do high-poverty schools have difficulty staffing their
classrooms with qualified teachers? Retrieved September 15, 2008, from
http://www.americanprogress.org/kf/ingersoll-final.pdf
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Hi Rochelle.
I am part of the NC NBCT initiative, which is providing National Board Certified Teachers to mentor new teachers in Lexington City, and three other NC districts. The initiative is much more than a new-teacher mentoring program--our math/science National Board Certified Teachers will also be supporting improved instruction in math and science, and assisting teachers exploring the National Board Certification process as professional development.
We love working with you and your new teachers in Lexington City--it's exciting to think that we can provide 24/7 feedback and ideas for improving practice to the enthusiastic new teachers there.
I want to stress, however, that e-mentoring should not be directly compared to face to face mentoring. They provide two different kinds of support. It was Richard Ingersoll, who is quoted in your great post, who has given us research support, confirming that forming professional networks outside the school building is identified by teachers as a highly effective source of professional learning that sometimes cannot be acquired on site.
However--there is contextual information that can only be provided by on-site mentors. We are hoping to capitalize on teachers' need to be part of these bigger networks as they build their practice skills--but we don't downplay the need for a good, face to face mentor.
I look forward to reading your thoughts as the project moves forward.
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