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POLICY
New Jersey
NTC Induction Policy Survey
Background
Mentoring in New Jersey began in 1985 and grew out of a program addressing an alternate route to teacher certification. Over the course of the next 14 years, mentoring was required for all novice teachers but there was no comprehensive district plan required. In 1999 the governor, Christine Todd Whitman, agreed to fund a two-year teacher induction program, that included comprehensive district plans, rigorous mentoring for first and second year teachers, ongoing professional development for mentoring, and funds for release time for classroom visitations to support novice teacher learning. At that time a one-year pilot program was established under which 17 districts were to develop induction plans based on the state criteria. Unfortunately, a fiscal crisis resulted in the funding being withdrawn.
In 2002 there was no funding for districts. In 2003, NJ funded $2 million to reimburse beginning teacher stipends. This is the funding for novice teachers who have not yet been certified and covered 62% the mentor stipend, paid by the new teacher. The funding has increased each year, as have the number of novice teachers in the state. This year the state funded $2.5 million and funded 58% of the novice teacher reimbursement for approximately 6,000 novice teachers.
In 2002-2003 NJ embarked on a program through a federally funded Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant in which mentoring was identified as key, and Victoria Duff was hired as the mentor training coordinator. She worked with a task force of key stakeholders and NSDC to develop a toolkit which is designed to explain the research supporting the benefits of mentoring, and help districts address the issues necessary to developing a teacher induction program. All districts are required to implement a mentoring plan aligned with the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers and includes rigorous mentoring for novice teachers and comprehensive training for mentors The Professional Standards for Teachers were developed in 2003 by the Professional Teaching Standards Board and are available at www.NJ.gov/njded/profdev.
Current Status
By this year, all 621 districts are required to have a Mentoring for Quality Induction plan in place. The plans vary widely from district to district, the term of the mentoring varies from one to three years. All are funded from Title II funds and district professional development funds, and none are full release, although some districts have full release mentor coordinators. Some mentors are grade specific, others are subject specific and sometimes a new teacher will have a pair of mentors. NJ also has a quality teaching task force which recommends policy for a number of programs, including the teacher induction program. The current acting commissioner is very supportive of this work, but is a political appointee. At this time, after the recent gubernatorial election, the new governor is conducting a national search for a commissioner and a gubernatorial election is forthcoming so the future is uncertain. New Jersey is also unique, in that it is working on policy to establish a state-wide professional learning community.
