Tools and practices are being developed to help local authorities improve the recruitment, placement, support and retention of mathematics and science teachers
The great efforts being made to identify and train a new generation of mathematics and science teachers serve no purpose, if these people later decide not to work in the teaching profession, or if they leave teaching soon after they begin. Data shows that only about 60% of trainee teachers are eventually integrated into the profession, and about half of those who entered the teaching profession, left it during their first five years of teaching. Currently, there is a lack of professional practices in human resource management for teaching in general, and among mathematics and science teachers in particular. When a school principal needs a teacher, in many cases efforts to fill the position are disorderly and last-minute; there is no job description and no acceptance criteria. When a new teacher comes to work at a school, it is often without a set work plan, and without regular feedback for their work.The employers of high school teachers in Israel are the municipalities and the school networks. They are the entities that need to hold an accurate and updated picture of their personnel situation, and to operate management routines which cultivate, develop and retain teachers in their schools. The importance of this issue is relevant for all teachers, but it is even more acute for mathematics and the sciences, where the shortage of teaching staff is particularly felt, and the competition for skilled teachers from other career options is high. In practice, science teachers in particular have become a sort of a municipal resource, because in many cases they teach in a handful of neighboring schools.
Considering the above, the foundation has explored the possibility of assisting the development of a consulting service for municipalities and school networks, to help them improve their human resources management, focused on the particular characteristics of mathematics and science teachers. We aimed to bring together expertise in human resources management and experience in high-level education administration in order to form a sustainable non-profit organization which would provide these services. This thinking is based on the experience of a similar organization operating in the U.S. called The New Teacher Project (https://tntp.org) which was established by the founders of Teach for America, through a loan from the Fisher family.
After a long search, two entrepreneurs were identified, who bring relevant expertise to the table: Dr. Soly Natan served until recently as Head of the Central District of the Ministry of Education, where she was responsible for 56 local authorities, and Dr. Shlomit Kaminka, Director of the Israeli Association for Management, Development and Research of Human Resources, and former human resource consultant for Bank Hapo’alim. They were awarded a grant of 300,000 NIS for first stage feasibility and `business planning`, which included learning the U.S. model and partnering with three Israeli cities to map their teaching resources and offer solutions (Yavne, the Southern Sharon Regional Council, and Even Yehuda). The main findings and insights learned during the mapping are the following:
Following their initial feasibility test, Natan and Kaminka have established a new nonprofit (‘קודקוד בחינוך’), which will provide local authorities and high school principals with consulting services to improve their mapping and the analysis of science and mathematics teaching personnel needs; processes of recruitment, screening and placement of new teachers, establishment and implementation of programs to support the absorption of new teachers, and improve teacher retention. During the next few years of the proposed program, tools and practices will be developed to be introduced gradually in 7-8 local authorities.