Toolkit
Supporting and Empowering Novice Teachers
These strategies highlight research and best practices, along with short, medium, and long-term solutions, as crucial for supporting and boosting the confidence of new or novice educators.
Strategy C
Provide ongoing job-embedded professional learning supports targeted to educators' needs.
School Story
Principal Johnson: Feeling Unsupported
Learn from Principal Johnson as she works to ensure that new special education teachers receive the support and resources they need to succeed in their roles.
Strategy A
Understand and support IDEA implementation.
Deepen your own expertise and understanding of the school leader’s role and other school leaders in supporting IDEA implementation.
Possible Actions
- Review guidance and seek resources from your state education agency (SEA), local education agency (LEA), or national technical assistance centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) Office of Special Education Programs, as well as advocacy groups and professional associations.
- Meet with district office staff to clarify building-level roles and expectations for IDEA implementation.
- Sign up for and follow ED’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and OSEP newsletters and mailing lists to remain informed about new guidance, free professional learning opportunities, and resources related to IDEA.
- Stay up-to-date on emerging research and guidance on inclusive principal leadership by becoming a member of your local, state, or national principal's association.
- Engage frequently with new special educators to build a trusting relationship and system of support for IDEA implementation.
Monitor IDEA implementation by visiting classrooms, reviewing IEPs and progress monitoring data, and analyzing feedback from new special educators.
Possible Actions
- Take stock of knowledge and conduct needs sensing for new special educators related to IEP development and implementation.
- Schedule classroom visits, professional learning opportunities, and IEP reviews.
- Normalize regular classroom visits and observations and help new staff feel comfortable with them. Walkthroughs should focus on fostering a growth mindset rather than being evaluative.
- Identify and/or develop checklists for IDEA and IEP implementation to guide your observations, feedback, and check-ins with new special educators.
Work with your district office or special education director to engage partners at local institutions to discuss any gaps in IDEA knowledge observed in new teachers.
Possible Actions
- Identify and partner with a local university that prepares special educators.
- Establish quarterly check-ins to facilitate increased collaboration and continuous feedback loops on any gaps in IDEA knowledge from pre-service to in-service.
- Keep track of IDEA knowledge gaps throughout the year to inform professional learning, coaching, and feedback to your district office and local universities.
- Leverage the district and university partnerships to recruit faculty to offer professional learning on IDEA to new general and special educators.
Strategy B
Build trusting, positive relationships by being visible and available to staff.
Conduct pulse checks to gauge new teachers’ mental health, using the results to identify and support those teachers most in need.
Possible Actions
- Assess teachers’ well-being and work/life balance using the sample tools in the resources section.
- Create a regular schedule for assessing educators’ well-being throughout the year.
- Analyze well-being survey results and identify the teachers most in need of support.
- Hold leadership team meetings to review the results and create an action plan that addresses priority needs from a systems perspective. Communicate progress on the plan regularly.
- Schedule time to meet with teachers identified as needing the most support.
- Value teachers’ time. Be flexible and accommodating of teachers’ personal and family responsibilities
- Engage frequently with new special educators to build a trusting relationship and system of support for IDEA implementation.
Create a coaching culture by being visible in classrooms and modeling your own openness to feedback so that new teachers feel comfortable requesting help.
Possible Actions
- Build ongoing check-ins and observations with new and inexperienced teachers into the master schedule.
- Engage teachers through peer-to-peer learning.
- Be accessible to staff: Communicate your availability and offer support.
- Be authentic by sharing your ideas, goals, and relevant personal values.
- Leverage existing teacher leaders and mentors to listen and provide support to new teachers and those who struggle with meeting the needs of students with disabilities.
- Follow up with educators to gather feedback on support provided and any additional needs.
- Provide positive feedback either during or after classroom visits to reassure new educators.
Be intentional about building open lines of communication with new special educators so that they feel seen, valued, and heard.
Possible Actions
- Bring new special and general educators together as a group and promote that they support one another.
- Reinforce a school culture that embraces laughter, joy, and optimism for the work.
- Get to know your staff, including their professional goals and personal accomplishments and challenges.
- Respond quickly by providing real-time support as needs emerge, while maintaining steady leadership during challenging situations.
- Follow through with new special and general educators when concerns or issues arise by summarizing actions and offering additional discussion time, as needed.
- Establish a consistent structure and process to address concerns (e.g. dedicated time during staff meetings, a suggestion box) and clearly communicate that process to all parties.
Strategy C
Provide ongoing job-embedded professional learning supports targeted to educators' needs.
Pair new special educators with experienced mentors based on role.
Possible Actions
- Establish criteria for mentor selection and assignment to meet the school culture, emotional, and instructional needs of beginning teachers.
- Identify veteran and experienced special and general educators in your building who can serve as mentors for new special educators.
- Engage your district office to identify virtual mentors beyond the school who match the role of the new special educator (if no such mentors are in your school). Assign an additional on campus mentor to provide in-school support needs.
- Schedule regular check-ins with both mentors and new special educators to gather feedback and data on the quality of supports (e.g., mentoring, induction, professional learning).
Resources
Module 2: Mentor: Recruitment, Selection, and Assignment
Teacher Induction: Providing Comprehensive Training for New Special Educators
Mentor Handbook for Beginning Special Education Teachers
E-Mentoring: Enhancing Special Education Teacher Induction
Job-Embedded Learning: Explore the Elements
District Induction Manual Supporting Beginning Special Educators
Prioritize mentor professional development on high-leverage practices (HLPs) for students with disabilities.
Possible Actions
- Train mentors on the high leverage practices for students with disabilities.
- Check in with mentors to understand their professional learning needs and ensure that they are receiving support.
- Encourage mentors to complete the HLP self-assessment tool with their mentees to inform professional learning needs for new special and general educators.
- Meet with mentors to reflect on the professional learning needs of educators. As needed, delegate this responsibility to your instructional coaches and/or teacher leaders.
Partner with local educator preparation programs (EPPs) to share new teacher strengths and needs to inform program design. Leverage professional learning content to create an aligned system from preservice to in-service.
Possible Actions
- Identify the local EPPs that feed special educators into your school and where you have partnerships.
- Collect feedback from mentors of new special educators to identify their strengths and gaps in knowledge. Summarize this feedback and share it with your EPP partner.
- Identify the gaps not covered by coursework within the educator preparation program (EPP) and identify if your school’s mentoring and induction program can address these gaps. Adjust professional learning content accordingly.
- Establish quarterly check-ins with feeder EPPs to discuss the feedback from mentors and plan for improving preservice to inservice alignment, preparation, and support.
Solutions in Action
Supporting and Empowering Novice Teachers
Amanda Clark, Florence Elementary School Principal, Florence Mississippi
In this video, discover how an elementary school principal cultivates leadership among new teachers, empowering them to take on additional responsibilities within the school while ensuring they receive adequate mentorship, support, and learning opportunities.
Related IDEA Considerations
IDEA Section 34 C.F.R. §300.156 (c) requires that for a special education teacher to be considered highly qualified they (a) must obtain full state certification as a special education teacher (including certification obtained through alternative routes) or (b) pass the state special education teacher licensure examination and (c) hold a license to teach in the state as a special education teacher. The regulations are clear that special education teachers must not have had special education certification and licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis and must hold at least a bachelor’s degree. Per 34 C.F.R. § 300.156, a teacher who is not fully certified can meet the requirements outlined in IDEA if they are participating in an alternative special education program, in which the teacher (a) receives high-quality professional development that is sustained, intensive, and classroom focused; (b) participates in a program with intensive supervision that consists of structured guidance and regular, ongoing support for teachers or a teaching mentoring program; and (c) functions as a teacher for only a specified period of time (not to exceed 3 years) and demonstrates satisfactory progress toward full certification.
IDEA specifies that mentoring and induction programs are an allowable use of district Part B funds, if they are designed to support special education teachers and improve the quality of education for students with disabilities (20 U.S.C. § 1465 (b)).