Teacher shortage
The Lowell Sun likes to pooh-pooh the fact that Massachusetts is facing a teacher shortage, but recent statistics in the Boston Globe (Sunday, 8/21/05) tell the story. In 1999-2000, 1884 teachers retired; this year the number is projected to be over 5,000. In 1996, 24% of teachers nationwide were over the age of 50, that number is now 42%. This makes programs such as mentoring of new teachers by veteran educators more crucial than ever.
The Globe article containing the above statistics (“A Student Teacher’s Lesson No. 1: Learn from a Pro,” by Maria Sacchetti) profiled a mentoring situation in the town of Rehoboth, in which a former engineer, who gave up a large salary to become a teacher, worked closely with an experienced teacher of 34 years to learn how to manage a classroom. Alternate programs to earn teaching certificates in one year instead of two are becoming the norm across the country as districts try to attract and retain new teachers. Mentoring becomes more important as a tool to recruit teachers and to help ease them into their new profession. Lowell’s new mentoring program is perfectly timed to take advantage of this trend at a time when teacher retirements are at a new high.
The Globe article containing the above statistics (“A Student Teacher’s Lesson No. 1: Learn from a Pro,” by Maria Sacchetti) profiled a mentoring situation in the town of Rehoboth, in which a former engineer, who gave up a large salary to become a teacher, worked closely with an experienced teacher of 34 years to learn how to manage a classroom. Alternate programs to earn teaching certificates in one year instead of two are becoming the norm across the country as districts try to attract and retain new teachers. Mentoring becomes more important as a tool to recruit teachers and to help ease them into their new profession. Lowell’s new mentoring program is perfectly timed to take advantage of this trend at a time when teacher retirements are at a new high.
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