What happens when educators think outside the box

Monday, June 13, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Everyone by now should know about the teacher crisis confronting the Clark County School District. The district is desperately short of teachers and relying on full-time substitutes and recruiting people in other fields to teach. And what about the young teachers directly out of college? It’s a challenge to get them to re-enlist after a nerve-wracking and exhausting inaugural year in the trenches.

So you’ve got to wonder what’s going on in the minds of those running our school district given that, last year, they pulled some of their best teachers — the “rock stars,” as they put it — out of their classrooms.

What were they thinking? Well, they were thinking outside the box. And it’s paying off.

In 2015 the school district enacted a program inspired by the schools of Montgomery County, Md. The strategy: Give some of your best teachers a new mission, to mentor 15 to 20 new teachers each year for three years. These mentors would give classroom newbies advice, confidence and an empathetic ear during those first treacherous nine months when a newly minted teacher’s noble idealism is most at risk of quickly extinguishing. All together, some 220 new teachers at 22 “turnaround” schools most in need of special attention were coached by 11 faculty rock stars this past school year. The program is called PAR — peer assistance review — and was funded for the first two years by the 2015 Legislature ($1 million a year) and supported by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

The logic: A terrific instructor can teach 30 kids a year, or help groom 20 new instructors to be terrific teachers for 30 kids a year. One experienced mentor influencing the education of 600 students in one year — and many thousands more as new teachers are successively mentored over coming years — is far-and-away the better formula.

Feedback at the end of the school year indicates that PAR is a roaring success. “Administrators are asking that the same consulting teachers come back to their schools in the fall, because they made such a difference in the first year,” said program head Rosanne Richards.

Granted, new teachers can lean on campus colleagues for help, maybe during a break in the teacher’s lounge or over a glass of whine on the weekend. But those opportunities are hit-and-miss. This program is distinguished for several reasons.

n The mentors regularly sit in their young charges’ classrooms, observing their mostly untested teaching skills, how effectively they engage with students, how well they manage classroom behavior and the like, and then share their findings and suggestions.

n Because mentors come from other campuses, the conversations between them and their green partners can be candid without fear of any political repercussion. Still, the mentors promise to respect each principal’s teaching vision for that campus.

n Besides polishing teaching techniques and classroom-management skills, the consulting teachers, at the end of the day, provide moral support to their mentees. Erin Nguyen, one of the rock stars, remembers her first year as a math teacher at Cheyenne High School and the need to “keep swimming” despite disheartening moments and challenges. “All teachers get tired of swimming in their first year,” she says. “It’s an emotionally and physically draining job. But we were able to throw them a life raft — moral support, to help them keep going. And then I was able to show them, at the end of the year, all that they had accomplished as teachers and how they were able to stand in the front of their classroom, in command.”

First-year teacher Michelle Marin, at Desert Pines High School, credits Nguyen for helping her better manage classroom behavior, “and that’s what I’m now most proud of. I flipped my attitude, which had been what I wanted them to do for me, to what I wanted them to do for themselves so they could reach their goals. Erin gave me the confidence to do that.”

Teachers helping teachers be all they can be for their students. That’s something the Clark County School District is starting to do very well.