District changes mentor program for teachers
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — Experienced teachers helping out novices is not a new concept, but changes to the current mentoring program may help improve the process behind it, according to Maribeth Edmunds, the director of professional development for the Board of Education.

As required by the state, the district always had a teacher mentoring program, but the program had no formal requirements or codes to meet certain qualifications. Furthermore, the program was at cost to the novice teacher.

The formalized program itself was introduced in 2000, when the Department of Education gave grants to Montclair, Jackson, Toms River, Brick, Woodbridge, Dumont, North Warren, Plainfield, Monmouth County Vocational School and South Brunswick in order to create a local mentor program. This was part of a $7 million grant the state received in order to improve teacher quality.

The program introduced in 2000 had much more specific components. For example, teachers under the program were required to visit each other’s classrooms and do observations, keep log books of experiences and reactions, and make decisions based upon data collected. Also, mentors needed to fill out applications and attend training programs. Due to the grant, the program was no longer at the novice teacher’s expense.

The changes to this program were based on focus group testing taken in June of 2005 where critiques of the system were heard.

“One of the things that the teachers brought up is that we did a lot of training on the mentors, but we haven’t brought the mentors and novice teachers in together,” Edmunds said.

“We’re scheduling more meetings this year to focus on the partnership together,” Edmunds said.

The new program will take a more qualitative, inquiry-driven approach than the last. The mentor and novice teacher formulate questions, such as “why do the same five students not volunteer for things as much as the other students” and work together in answering them. While the last program was focused on helping teachers take care of day-to-day concerns such as writing lesson plans or marking papers, the changes introduced adds a student-achievement angle.

The mentoring program has apparently been met with success in some other districts as well.

“Well, from what I understand, [the teachers] are doing a phenomenal job in the classroom, adding to the school in general as far as taking part in extracurricular activities and working well with the students,” said Jen DiTrani of the Dumont Board of Education, who co-heads the program there. “The sharing of the experience that mentors have that one does not learn in college [has really helped teachers]. No course in college will totally prepare you for the career, and only those who have gone through years of the craft can help someone who is just starting out.”

The stipends mentor teachers receive are $550 for a regular teacher and $1,100 for an alternate-route teacher, though the district and state picks up the cost.

“When you are in a district like South Brunswick — when you have 45 to 50 people this year — it really adds up, so we need to understand that we are serious about improving the quality of teachers,” said Edmunds.