Background/Context Beginning teachers often identify the school principal as a key figure for support and guidance. Few teacher education conceptual models exist that significantly integrate the building principal into the clinical experiences of teacher candidates. The rationale behind initiating discourse on principal involvement grows out of current policy and reform initiatives that require increased accountability for improved student performance. The call for more deliberate principal involvement in preservice also arises in regard to teacher attrition and retention concerns. Having the principal engage in active mentoring during preservice may positively address these issues by providing a more complete socialization and enculturation process into today's context of schooling. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The major research questions for this study were: (1) What are the level and types of support that building principals provide for the preparation of new teachers? (2)What are the obstacles that may be preventing principals from becoming more involved with teacher preparation? (3) What are the types of activities that make sense for principal involvement with field experience and student teaching? (4) What are suggestions for more meaningful collaboration between schools and teacher/administrator preparation programs? Research Design The study was designed as an interpretive qualitative research project that attempted a measure of self-reporting through in-depth interviews. Conclusions/Recommendations M3—A new conceptual model of collaboration (three supports for preservice teacher: mentor, university supervisor, and principal) was presented to include the principal with the preservice teacher, university supervisor, and cooperating teacher in a community of practice for teacher preparation. To build on this research and continue the discourse about the principal's role, several implications and areas for future study are presented: (1) investigation of teacher preparation programs more in depth to get further information about how principals are involved in teacher education, (2) implementation of the M3 conceptual model in a pilot capacity during field and student teaching experiences to gather more data about collaboration, especially the role of the principal, (3) the collaboration of principal preparation and teacher education programs to address this aspect of supervision in course content and internships, (4) the difference in perceptions of prospective and practicing principals regarding their role with teacher candidates during preser-vice, and (5) study of professional development schools to see how the principal is involved in a supervisory and instructional leadership capacity with preservice teachers.
Principals in today’s schools clearly have their work cut out for them. The job has never been easy andthe addition of accountability for state standards and assessments just adds to the load. Theimplications of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for principals involve spending significant amounts of timeon the development of effective classroom teachers. The content of induction programs for newteachers now includes federal and state requirements for licensing and recertification (Highly QualifiedTeachers) in addition to aligning new teacher needs with school mission and goals. As a result, theprincipal’s role with beginning teachers has never been more important than in today’s era of schoolreform. What impact do accountability measures have on the attrition and retention of new teachers?According to Hoerr (2005), 25 percent of new teachers will leave the profession within four years. Willthat figure be further impacted by the fact that new teachers must deal with strict accountability issuesalong with the traditional concerns of classroom management, planning and organizing instruction,motivating and evaluating students, and using effective teaching strategies (Gordon & Maxey, 2000)?Federal and state requirements put added pressure on principals to get their teachers up to speedquickly in order to improve and sustain student achievement. While principals can put new teachers onthe right course through well-developed induction programs, they may want to become involved sooner.It may prove advantageous to schools and the profession, if principals start looking at earlierinvolvement with new teachers during pre-service. Principals may argue that the extra time investedwith preservice teachers may not impact their particular school when most students will take jobs inother districts. Considering the statistics on new teacher attrition and the prediction that we will need toeducate 54.3 million students by 2008 in our nation’s classrooms (Glatthorn, Jones & Bullock, 2006),principals may be providing a service that could impact the profession of teaching as a whole.
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