WATERLOO -- Pamela Byrd Jordan spent years in Waterloo classrooms before she began teaching for the district.

She worked as a Waterloo Community Schools teacher's associate at two different points for a total of 15 years. During her second stint as an associate, Jordan was earning a teaching degree at Wartburg College.

Last fall, she was hired as a sixth-grade reading teacher at Hoover Middle School. But years in the schools and a degree didn't mean she always felt ready for the challenges of running her own classroom.

There were "definitely still some surprises," said Jordan. It was a big change "to come back and to know that everything is resting on my shoulders."

That's where her colleague and mentor Nancy Bamsey came in.

A 20-year veteran of the schools and a sixth-grade language arts teacher, Bamsey observed Jordan in her classroom and offered pointers. Jordan could also discuss lesson plans and teaching methods with Bamsey.

They were paired through the district's state-mandated mentoring and induction program, which provides two years of support and training for beginning teachers.

Jordan said the program is helping her in the classroom. Education officials believe it may be decreasing teacher turnover across the state.

It started in the fall of 2001 after statewide funding for mentors and new teacher training was approved. The program is designed to prepare new teachers to receive a standard license.

"Every district and every (area education agency) in the state has to have a comprehensive plan that's approved by the Department of Education," said Mary Beth Schroeder Fracek, an administrative consultant who oversees the state's program. "Initially, the Legislature wanted to recruit and retain high-quality new teachers to the profession in Iowa, and the data show that we are doing that.

"It also gives support to those new teachers to be successful and stay in the profession," she added "We're starting to retain those people. But it's a national problem; people aren't staying in the profession.

"We won't have an adequate teaching force if we don't continue to keep people in the profession. It's that simple."

National problem

Teacher turnover has a high cost across the country. Last week, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future released a report estimating teachers leaving a district or the profession altogether cost $7.3 billion in the 2003-04 school year.

Beginning teachers who leave the profession are a significant factor in this number. Richard M. Ingersoll, a University of Pennsylvania associate professor, estimates that nationally 14 percent of teachers quit after a year. That number grows to 46 percent after five years. His estimate is based on a series of nationally teacher surveys between 1987 and 2000.

In the fall of 2000, before Iowa's mentoring and induction program began, 13 percent of beginning public school teachers did not continue in the profession for a second year. By the fall of 2005 -- four years into the program -- Iowa Department of Education data show that number had dropped to 8 percent.

When the first group of beginning teachers to participate in the program returned for their fifth year, 28 percent had left. The beginners who started teaching a year before the program was put in place had a slightly higher attrition rate of 29.7 percent by their fifth year.

The Waterloo district has not been able to determine the impact of the mentoring and induction program on the percent of new teachers leaving the profession.

"It's difficult to track hard data about (if it helps) us retain teachers, because there's so many factors related to their mobility," said Denise Schares, the district's director of professional development.

Fracek believes Iowa offers a better program than most states.

"Ours is probably one of the top programs in the country from the standpoint that we support it with dollars and policy," she said.

Iowa is one of 16 states that require and finance mentoring for beginning teachers, according to Education Week's Quality Counts 2006 report. In five of those states, including Iowa, the program lasts at least two years. All but one of the remaining programs lasts a year.

Iowa spent $2.4 million when the program started in 2001-02, an amount that grew to $4.56 million this past year. While annual state funding for participation of a mentor and novice teacher has remained at $1,300, the categories of educators has expanded. Included are district and AEA teachers, guidance counselors and school librarians. In 2005-06, more than 3,000 first- and second-year teachers participated across the state.

"It's been re-appropriated every year with bipartisan support from the Legislature," said Fracek.

Cedar Falls-based AEA 267 oversees a mentoring and induction program for 52 of the 61 districts it serves. It worked with 94 first-year and 102 second-year teachers plus 200 mentors during 2006-07. Waterloo's program is separate.

Sheryl Frascht, professional development consultant for the agency, said mentors are paired sometimes with more than one new teacher in the same building. Mentors, who must have at least four years of teaching experience, observe new teachers in their classrooms and meet with them a minimum of once a week to work on issues relevant to their situation.

She said mentors are highly trained in "cognitive coaching" and generally work with new teachers on a one-to-one basis in their school.

To prepare, mentors meet together for two days before school starts and then with the new teachers for another day. During the school year, mentors meet together once every six weeks. The new teachers meet together in a three-hour evening session three or four times per year.

Helping teachers

In the Waterloo district, a total of 30 first-year and 36 second-year teachers plus their mentors participated during 2006-07.

Schares said all teacher pairs attend monthly first- or second-year induction sessions. These focus on the eight Iowa teaching standards, which call for demonstrating such things as the ability to enhance students' academic performance and competence in classroom management.

"So, the program is really set up to be aligned to those standards and help those teachers to be successful," said Schares. The focus is on understanding the needs of students in the first year and on collection of evidence showing teachers have mastered the standards in the second year.

Mentors also observe the teachers they are paired with for the skills discussed in the sessions and then ask coaching questions.

Jessica Seim, a preschool teacher at Lowell Elementary for the past 1.5 years, talked with her mentor about "what's happening in the classroom, what can be done differently." After discussing learning styles in one of the sessions, for example, the pair came up with a game incorporating visual, auditory and physical approaches to a lesson. Seim tried it in class and later talked about how it went with her mentor.

Jordan, the Hoover teacher, said the monthly sessions and availability of a mentor have helped her do a better job in the classroom.

"I think honestly, yeah, there were situations that came up where I didn't have a clue how to approach this," she said. "If I can't get that information across to (students), me knowing it doesn't make a bit of difference."

"I think some of it's just a matter of you have to experience several years of teaching before it solidifies a bit," said Bamsey, her mentor.

But it is not only the new teachers who are learning.

"It's a reciprocal process," said Bamsey. "I gain things from this partnership, too.

"Having taught 20 years, sometimes it helps to put myself back in the shoes of a first-year teacher."

She recalled discussing strategies to help students be successful.

"Maybe I had used them before, but I learned them in a new way by listening to some of these first-year teachers and how they use them," she said. "Sometimes it's just nice to get a fresh perspective from a new teacher."

Tami Sommerfeldt, a mentor to second-year special needs teacher Katie Kimber at West High School, agreed.

"She's learning new skills, I'm going back and reviewing and learning some new things," said Sommerfeldt. "What I feel was of most value for Katie was that somebody was telling her, 'You're doing a good job.'"

"One of the best things, I thought, about mentoring was we had time to collaborate with another teacher," said Kimber. "Mentoring kind of sets aside a time to learn from each other."

She frequently stopped into Sommerfeldt's classroom to bounce ideas off of her.

"One of the hardest things is you're kind of inventing something new every day," said Kimber. "Mentoring helped me come up with ideas for those."

While teaching can be stressful and demanding at times, Kimber believes she would have stuck with it to this point even without a mentor. After student teaching opportunities at West as well as other schools in Minneapolis and Australia, she was as prepared as possible for that first day.

It wasn't enough, though. Fortunately, she had Sommerfeldt and the induction program for support.

"I felt prepared and ready, but there's so much you have to learn when you're in the job," said Kimber. "I never knew how much it was going to be until I started doing it."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.

{M3Public school teacher retention*

School yr. 1st-yr. Returning 01-02 Returning 02-03 Returning 03-04 Returning 04-05 Returning 05-06

2000-01 1,810 1,574 (87 %) 1,424 (78.7 %) 1,339 (74 %) 1,273 (70.3 %) 1,221 (67.5 %)

2001-02** 1,614 1,407 (87.2 %) 1,285 (79.6 %) 1,216 (75.3 %) 1,162 (72 %)

2002-03*** 1,269 1,131 (89.1 %) 1,033 (81.4 %) 975 (76.8 %)

2003-04 1,432 1,295 (90,4 %) 1,200 (83.8 %)

2004-05 1,512 1,391 (92 %)

2005-06 1,590

Source: Iowa Department of Education

*Data does not include teachers leaving Iowa to teach in other states.

**Mentoring and induction was first offered in 2001-02.

***All beginning teachers were supported by mentoring and induction in 2002-03.