Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Tangipahoa Framework for Induction, Retaining, and Supporting Teachers
Compiled By: John Weathers

Overview and History of Program

Two statewide programs administered by the Louisiana Department of Education provide a systematic approach to supporting and developing new teachers: the Louisiana Teacher Assistance and Assessment Program (LaTAAP), and the Louisiana Framework for Inducting, Retaining, and Supporting Teachers (LaFIRST). The components of LaTAAP are broad, and they provide much of the assistance new teachers need. But LaTAAP does not provide everything they need. In an attempt to fill in some of the gaps, the state provides funding, training, and guidance through LaFIRST for local parishes (districts) to develop their own induction programs. One rural Louisiana parish, Tangipahoa, fills these gaps particularly well. Tangipahoa successfully combines state and local programs to retain new teachers and ensure their competence.

From its inception in 1994, LaTAAP has required both mentor support and assessment for new teachers. In its current form, all new teachers must participate in LaTAAP. An experienced and state-trained mentor teacher from the same school, who teaches in a similar subject area and grade level, provides two years of mentoring. Mentors facilitate observations and give critical feedback. They also help teachers create a professional development plan to improve their skills in order to meet state teaching standards—the Components of Effective Teaching. In the second year of LaTAAP, teachers undergo formal observations and submit portfolios of their work to be assessed by their principal and an external assessor.

LaFIRST began in 2001 and is derived from the highly praised LaFourche Parish induction model. LaFIRST provides local parishes additional training, guidance, and financial support to assist in the development of new teachers. One of its primary tools has been a summer institute to prepare volunteer teams of mentors and mentor trainers from all parishes in how to develop preservice induction training and provide follow-up support for new teachers.108 Through a mini-grant program, LaFIRST has also provided forty-two of sixty-six parishes with financial assistance to implement the induction practices that the state outlines as best practice.

LaFIRST activities are voluntary, and the mini-grants do not always cover the costs of local programs. This leaves individual parishes to develop and fund a more comprehensive approach to induction. LaFIRST trainings and seed money have helped to inspire a number of districts develop their own support and training for new teachers. Tangipahoa Parish is one school district that has successfully taken on this challenge, despite the typical barriers that come with being a low-income rural district.

The new teacher support and development provided through Tangipahoa FIRST augments but does not replace LaTAAP. Building on the LaFIRST model, it includes: four highly structured days of induction during the summer, focused on the first days of school; seminars about classroom management, planning and effective teaching, and local policies and procedures; and follow-up professional development sessions for a new teacher’s first three years. All teachers new to the parish, regardless of experience, participate in the program. Late hires are placed in a preservice program in January. In addition, Tangipahoa FIRST employs full-time mentors to supplement the work of LaTAAP mentors. Tangipahoa has received LaFIRST grant money for the past two years, which they have used to purchase classroom materials and to fund professional development sessions for new teachers.

Quality Components

Mentoring

LaTAAP specifies the qualifications of mentors and requires that all mentors participate in training with a local state-trained instructor. Mentor activities include holding weekly meetings with new teachers and observing classroom teaching. LaTAAP mentors are limited to supporting two novices so that they can devote enough assistance to each. The majority of new teachers spend an average of one to two hours per week with their mentor. To ensure quality mentoring, LaTAAP legislation requires principals to schedule time for mentors to work with teachers and monitor their activities.

Tangipahoa FIRST supplements the work of the LaTAAP mentors with four full-time and four half-time mentors who were hired in 2003–04 and trained to assist new teachers, including special education teachers. These mentors receive the LaTAAP Assessor and Mentor Trainings, Tangipahoa FIRST mentor training, and monthly follow-up training by the program coordinator.

Common Planning Time and Collaboration

LaTAAP legislation requires common planning time and collaboration between mentors and new teachers, but release time is difficult to provide in many schools. In Tangipahoa, elementary teachers did not have common planning time during the 2003–04 school year.

Ongoing Professional Development

As previously noted, Tangipahoa FIRST provides preservice and ongoing professional development for new teachers in years one, two, and three with day-long training sessions on topics determined by the new teachers. To attend these sessions, new teachers are granted release time, and their classes are covered by substitute teachers.

External Network

In all Tangipahoa FIRST training sessions, teachers are grouped together by grade and subject level to encourage ongoing interaction. As some participants have noted, this practice has helped them establish a network and support system with other teachers. Through a program called FIRSTTech, Louisiana maintains a Blackboard website where it posts training materials and links to teacher resources. New teachers can use the site to participate in online discussions about teaching. While some teachers use the online network, the state is working to boost the number of teachers on FIRSTTech.

Assessment and Evaluation

Tangipahoa, like all parishes in Louisiana, assesses its teachers through LaTAAP. All new teachers in Louisiana are evaluated by their principal/designee and an outside evaluator on their ability to meet the state’s Components of Effective Teaching during observations in their third semester. In 2003–04 the state added a portfolio component to this assessment.

Making Induction Work

Principal Leadership

Principals are responsible for the implementation, coordination, and monitoring of the LaTAAP program in their school, although the state can sanction schools that fail to meet specifications. Principals are charged with making sure schools have enough trained mentors in all subject areas and with providing release time to mentors and novice teachers.

In addition to school-level management, strong district-level leadership makes Tangipahoa FIRST work. The former superintendent ensured that the program administrator had the time and resources to develop a superior program through research, attending trainings, and visiting other school systems. Because Tangipahoa is rural and poor, its parish leaders face the challenge of making induction a priority. To run induction well, they must continually allocate resources for mentors, professional development, and program staff.

High-Quality Providers

Tangipahoa employs two full-time program coordinators, who have additional support staff, to administer LaTAAP and Tangipahoa/LaFIRST. These administrators and their support staff manage activities, develop curricula, and teach preservice and follow-up training sessions.

Support for Teachers with Little Preparation

Tangipahoa requires all teachers new to the district, regardless of their preparation or certification level, to participate in its FIRST program. FIRST is flexible enough that mentors can provide additional support to underprepared or overburdened teachers.

For example, Tangipahoa hired one teacher in November for a classroom in which two previous teachers had already quit. FIRST mentors spent a week in the classroom developing the new teacher’s skills and personal commitment so that she not only stayed at the school but actually looked forward to returning the next year. Since Tangipahoa FIRST mentors do not have classes of their own, they can help overwhelmed teachers grade papers, develop lesson plans, research activities, gather materials, and, as one teacher put it, “help new teachers go above and beyond just surviving.”

Incentives for Participation

In Tangipahoa, induction is mandatory. State licensure requirements are the incentive for participating in LaTAAP.

Alignment with Teacher Goals and Standards

Each year, Tangipahoa asks its new teachers to assess the FIRST program and make suggestions for improvement. The following year, induction coordinators use those assessments to align follow-up training sessions with the needs of teachers. Also, Tangipahoa mentors are encouraged to tailor their work to the individual needs of their mentees.

The LaTAAP program, in concert with the Louisiana Components of Effective Teaching, provides a well-developed means of using clearly specified research-based and practice knowledge about best teaching practices as the standard for assessing a new teacher’s work. These components are correlated with the widely accepted national teaching standards. The requirement that an outside assessor be part of this twomember assessment team adds to its thoroughness and objectivity.

Adequate and Stable Funding

The costs of new teacher induction in Tangipahoa are greatest for first-year teachers and decline somewhat for second- and third-year teachers. This is because first-year teachers receive some training prior to the start of the school year, as well as four professional development sessions during the school year. Second- and third-year teachers receive professional development only during the school year, with second-year teachers receiving three sessions, and third-year teachers receiving two. In addition, the LaTAAP program is two years in length, so this cost is not incurred for third-year teachers. The costs detailed below are for first-year teachers in the Tangipahoa program during the 2003–04 school year. The costs for second-year and third-year teachers during the same academic year were $3,465 and $2,421, respectively. Tangipahoa funds its induction program by integrating federal, state and local funding sources.

Costs for the 2003–04 school year, first-year teachers:

Evaluation of the Induction Program

The Louisiana Department of Education collects evaluations twice a year from parishes who receive LaFIRST grants on their preservice and ongoing induction training. Tangipahoa FIRST regularly gathers and reviews data about all aspects of its program from all participants.

Effectiveness

Quantitative Benefits

Louisiana’s most recent evaluation of LaFIRST (2002–03) contains useful information to judge the effectiveness of induction. Using data from twenty-eight of the sixty six Louisiana parishes, both tables show responses from grant administrators, mentor teachers, and new teachers. Table 1 displays how each group viewed the effectiveness of their programs for new teachers.

Table 2 displays how each group compared the student outcomes of teachers in LaFIRST to those who were not in the program.

Table 1: New Teacher Effectiveness

Average scores (Range 1=Not Effective; 6=Very Effective)

Table 2. Differences Between LaFIRST New Teachers and Nonparticipants

Overall, the data demonstrate that LaFIRST is successful at improving the effectiveness of new teachers, especially in terms of classroom management. The story differs, though, according to the person being asked. In general, program administrators are more positive about the benefits of the program.

The report also asked LaFIRST parishes to report their retention rates. Tangipahoa Parish had a 100 percent retention rate for certified teachers in 2002–03. A full 85 percent of all recipients reported rates of 80 percent or higher. For 2001–02, the average retention rate of second-year teachers was 88 percent.

Qualitative Benefits

Tangipahoa FIRST and its local administration of LaTAAP are consistently praised by new teachers, LaTAAP mentors, and principals alike. During a focus group conducted for this report, a representative mix of teachers, mentors, and principals praised Tangipahoa’s induction. Three teachers claimed that full-time mentors had saved them from quitting, built their confidence and teaching ability, and facilitated such a turnaround in their classrooms that they actually looked forward to returning the next year. One high school teacher commented, “Having a mentor teacher has been the most helpful learning experience for me as a teacher. At all times, I was able to ask questions, see models, and hear related experiences. This has helped me to develop my teaching skill and grow as a professional.”

Mentors also praised induction as a way to improve their own teaching skills. One mentor explained that, “Being a mentor has kept me in touch with what’s new in the field and has kept me fresh and motivated. I have been able to help the teachers that I work with, but they have also benefited me.” Sentiments like these are echoed throughout teacher evaluations of the Tangipahoa FIRST program.

Summary

Some potential problems with induction exist in Louisiana. Parishes using only LaTAAP may have gaps in their activities, such as limited or no preservice training, little or no ongoing professional development, or limited contact between novice and mentors, who may be too busy with their own responsibilities. Poor local leadership can mean that some teachers receive less support than others. And, while LaFIRST grants help start the funding and training of district staff—as they have in
Tangipahoa—the program does not provide funding commensurate with the costs of induction, and its principals do not receive training to lead the program.

Overall, however, induction in Louisiana is quite strong. LaTAAP serves every new teacher, is linked to high-quality teaching standards, and supports teachers with welltrained mentors. Tangipahoa FIRST provides new teachers with full-time mentors and comprehensive preservice and ongoing training tailored to their needs, and models effective classroom teaching that they can then apply in their classrooms.