Senator proposes teacher mentorship program to fill educator shortages

TAMPA, Fla. - Florida educators said the number of job openings for teachers in Florida is currently at an all-time high and a state senator hopes a proposed bill creating a mentorship and training program can help.

Getting and keeping teachers in the classroom can be challenging, so mentoring can be useful to better prepare teachers for what’s ahead. But the Florida Education Association said a robust mentorship program for teachers does not exist anymore statewide.

"So we actually used to have a great one in Florida. It was called the Dale Hickman program, and it was where we use nationally board-certified teachers," said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association. "There are a few districts, I believe, that have similar programs that they've kind of continued, but the state of Florida cut off funding for that many years ago."

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Florida Senator Shevrin Jones (D-Broward and Miami-Dade) said he wants to bring something like that back into the state’s education system. He introduced SB 618 which would establish a training and mentoring program for new teachers. Under the proposed program, each school in every district would have three highly-rated current or retired teachers as mentors, and those mentors would get a $2,000 stipend.

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Senator Jones said in a statement to FOX 13, in part, "I can still remember when I first entered the classroom and found myself in dilemmas where guidance from a more experienced colleague would have surely helped. This partnership between retired and new teachers aims to increase the effectiveness and involvement of classroom teachers, while improving student achievement, equity, and excellence." Jones said he believes the program would also "improve teacher effectiveness, especially in marginalized and underserved communities."

Some educators say it’s a good first step after losing mentorship grants. In Hillsborough County, the teachers union described the district’s former mentoring program and how it’s since scaled back after funding ran out. 

"[It] was Empowering Effective Teachers [grant], and that was done with the Gates Foundation years ago where we had peer-to-peer mentors in the district, as well as other peers that would go in and do evaluations for teachers and other observed lessons," said Rob Kriete, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. "Right now, we don't have a real structure to what the mentoring program was or could be, and we're doing it more of a buddy system in the schools, which is helpful. I don't want to dismiss it. And it does take a lot of work from both partners in that mentor-mentee relationship, but I think that we could do better."

Kriete said he’s like to see incentives for veteran teachers to mentor first-year or new classroom teachers, especially since supporting teachers also means supporting students. Educators said the bill could help classroom teachers get what they need to close any gaps.

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"We have classrooms out there that are empty right now and anything that we could do, that I could do to keep those folks in there helping those kids and meeting those needs is what we're willing to do," said Kriete.

The bill was introduced on Oct. 25 for consideration during the 2022 legislative session beginning on January 11.