The META Teacher Development and Retention Project Abstract

The ultimate goal of the META Teacher Development and Retention Project is to increase student achievement by developing and retaining more effective teachers within the school divisions that make up the Metropolitan Educational Training Alliance (META). Through close collaboration of all META partners -- Chesterfield County, Hanover County, Henrico County, and Richmond City Public Schools and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) -- the project will (1) enhance the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of prospective teachers through alignment of content courses in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences with national and state standards, the creation of an interdisciplinary major for elementary teachers, and a redesign of the VCU education methods courses to better integrate theory and practice; (2) ensure the consistency and quality of the clinical placements of preservice teachers by identifying and training a large pool of exemplary teachers to serve as VCU clinical faculty; and (3) transform the current META mentoring programs from informal “buddy systems” to structured ones that focus on increasing student achievement by enhancing the knowledge and skills of beginning teachers, especially in the most challenging schools.

Over five years, the project will train 580 National Board Certified Teachers and other exemplary teachers as clinical faculty and 24 Beginning Teacher Advisors (BTAs) in the research-based Santa Cruz New Teacher Project model of mentoring. Each BTA will be released full-time to mentor in the most challenging schools within the META divisions. Through observation, coaching, and analysis of student work, the BTAs will help novices improve teaching and learning, resulting in higher student achievement and greater teacher retention.
The significant changes developed and sustained through the project will dramatically improve the way teachers are prepared in content knowledge and pedagogy, placed in clinical settings, and supported in their first two years of teaching. This will benefit on average more than 141,000 K-12 students, 275 VCU education graduates, and 1,250 beginning teachers each year in the metro-Richmond area.