More teachers green in the classroom

Good news from USA Today and timely as we premier, this weekend, our first show in a five-part series on positive changes in education.  We shot the shows at one of the mecca's in RI for educational innovation:  The Green School.

Here, we see a trend towards younger teachers, a move into charter schools, The Green School being one here in RI, and with that youth movement, a emphasis on technology, newer innovations which we know, from our TV series, includes a wonderful focus on environmental economics (something we covered last week in our radio show).

Here's the link: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/backtoschool/story/2012-09-05/new-teachers/57581638/1

Part of the story:    WASHINGTON – With three years of teaching under her belt, Allison Frieze nearly qualifies as a grizzled veteran. The 28-year-old special education teacher at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School here already has more experience than the typical U.S. teacher.

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  By Sam Roberts, AP
  Students across the country are more likely to see new teachers this fall.

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By Sam Roberts, AP

Students across the country are more likely to see new teachers this fall.

She remembers her first year and says no new teacher really wants to relive that. "You have so many pressures on you and you're kind of swimming, trying to keep your head above water with all of the things you have to do," Frieze says.

Research suggests that parents this fall are more likely than ever to find that their child's teachers are relatively new to the profession, and possibly very young.

• STORY: Should parents 'friend' their child's teacher?

Recent findings by Richard Ingersoll at the University of Pennsylvania show that as teacher attrition rates have risen, from about 10% to 13% for first-year teachers, schools are having to hire large numbers of new teachers. Between 40% to 50% of those entering the profession now leave within five years in what Ingersoll calls a "constant replenishment of beginners."

The end result: a more than threefold increase in the sheer number of inexperienced teachers in U.S. schools. In the 1987-88 school year, Ingersoll estimates, there were about 65,000 first-year teachers; by 2007-08, the number had grown to more than 200,000. In the 1987-88 school year, he found, the biggest group of teachers had 15 years of experience. By the 2007-08 school year, the most recent data available, the biggest group of teachers had one year experience...

What should parents expect from these new teachers, and how should they interact?

Teachers get greener

Teachers with five years of experience or less

Source: Richard Ingersoll and Lisa Merrill, University of Pennsylvania

For one thing, get used to communicating online with them, says Susan Fuhrman, president of Columbia University's Teachers College.

"They're going to be much better at technology," she says. "They're going to have grown up digital natives," drawn to technology and less afraid of it than their parents' generation. They're also more likely to see the possibilities in emerging software such as games, simulations and classroom management software..."