Supporting New Teachers in the City

In 2002, new teacher retention was a major problem in the Philadelphia school district: less than half of new teachers were staying in the district after three years on the job. Useem and Neild detail strategies the district took between 2002 and 2004 to both attract well-prepared teachers likely to stay and support new teachers. A key recruitment strategy was creating six alternative certification programs to place young teachers who were still pursuing their certification into Philadelphia classrooms in appropriate ways. Providing each new teacher in the district a ‘new teacher coach’ was a very effective retention strategy. These carefully selected new teacher coaches were relieved of their own classroom duties and made responsible for mentoring and supporting new teachers in any way needed. Teacher interviews suggest that new teacher coaches made a difference in retention; 85 percent of first-year teachers in Philadelphia returned to the district for their second teaching year, up from 77 percent before the district took these measures.