Overland Park — KU will help Blue Valley schools begin a four-part, $200,000 program aimed at slowing the departure of new teachers from the profession.
Corissa Nelson moved from Iowa to Kansas for her first teaching job, based on the Blue Valley school district's guarantee she would be paired with a veteran teacher in a mentoring program.
"It's going to get me through my first year of teaching," Nelson said during a break from second-graders at Heartland School.
Nelson also was intrigued by the Overland Park district's new alliance with Kansas University that allows 43 first- and second-year Blue Valley teachers to begin work this fall on a master's degree in education.
"The best part," Nelson said, "is the course work ... will be ... tied to what I'm dealing with in class."
The portion of the Blue Valley Professional Development Academy that directly involves KU is the Alliance for Educational Excellence.
"The impact and importance of the teacher in the classroom cannot be denied," said Karen Gallagher, dean of KU's education school. "We know that the highly qualified teacher in the classroom benefits all students. The better the teacher, the better the student."
KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said traditional divisions between higher education and primary and secondary schools were outdated.
"That is not a viable option to education in the 21st century," he said. "It takes a partnership to do a good job of teaching children."
Blue Valley's academy costs $200,000 annually, said Sandra Chapman, director of human resources and staff development for the district.
She said the academy requires each new teacher to attend a series of seminars and classes taught prior to the start of the school year. Each first-year teacher is assigned a mentor in his or her building, and three master teachers also roam the district full-time to help new teachers.
Master's degree courses will be taught by KU faculty as well as Blue Valley administrators and teachers. All first-year classes will be on Blue Valley campuses. Thirty Blue Valley teachers are on a waiting list for the graduate program.
In the Lawrence school district, there is no systematic mentoring program. New teachers do attend an orientation session. But the district hasn't released experienced staff to work collectively with new teachers or formed a special alliance with KU to foster completion of master's degrees, said Mary Rodriguez, the Lawrence district's executive director of human resources.
Lawrence Supt. Kathleen Williams said a committee was studying options for helping new teachers.
"We're looking at having a mentoring program," she said.
Blue Valley Supt. David Benson said the district's support program was rigorous for a reason.
"We believe it will make a difference for our school district in our recruitment efforts in a tight teacher market, and a difference for our new professionals in terms of retention."
Chapman said the Blue Valley district has 16,000 students and 1,300 teachers. The affluent, rapidly expanding district opens a new school building nearly every year.
Hiring and retaining quality teachers is challenging in any school district given a national shortage of educators in math, special education and other fields.
Of the 44 first-year teachers hired by Blue Valley for the 1997-98 school year, 16 percent left within two years. Comparable attrition numbers for Lawrence schools weren't available. Nationally, 35 percent of teachers leave the profession after five years.
"We're facing a teacher shortage," Chapman said. "We're trying to gear up so we don't approach those levels."
-- Tim Carpenter's phone message number is 832-7155. His e-mail address is tcarpenter@ljworld.com.
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