In addition, only 8 percent to 13 percent of novice CPS teachers reported getting the kind of intensive help, from mentors and their school, that seems to make a major difference in whether such rookies plan to stay in teaching and stay put in their schools.
The study also described a changing work force. Novices were more likely to be white than CPS teachers as a whole, something that "may have long-term cultural or linguistic implications'' in a system that is only 8 percent white, the authors wrote.
The new analysis, by the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, was based on surveys of more than 1,700 "novice,'' first- or second-year CPS teachers during the 2004-2005 school year.
Even this school year, CPS officials conceded, nearly 50 of more than 600 principals are not providing the mandated mentoring and induction programs required for novice CPS teachers.
Schools with high teacher turnover, Rivera said, may not have teachers with the required five years' experience to be mentors or those willing to put in the work required.
Principal turnover also may be part of the problem, said Lisa Vahey, who runs the Chicago New Teacher Center, which CPS opened this year to provide extra help in hard-to-staff Englewood. The center costs $6,000 per novice, vs. the $1,000 CPS spends on most rookies.
More than 20 percent of novices said they were not in any induction or mentoring program, and 29 percent said they were not in any CPS-mandated program.
The study also found that rookie CPS elementary teachers were more likely to be assigned to below-average students than non-rookies -- something Madeline Talbott, executive director of Chicago-ACORN, called "worrisome.''
