Handbook for Project Beacon Teachers

Abstract

The 1960s saw a shortage in available teachers, part of which could be traced to teacher attrition. This paper examines teachers’ motivation their inner-city teaching positions to take positions at other schools in the Rochester area. The researcher then conducted one-hour personal interviews with fifteen teachers who had left inner city schools to teach at other schools in the greater Rochester area. Questions focused on teachers’ perceptions of their professional resources and challenges, as well as their personal motivations. The study juxtaposed this information against data gleaned from a survey administered to 28 teacher-orientation program directors about their orientation methods, procedures, statistics, goals and philosophies. The researcher found that teachers cited better disciplinary control of their classrooms, more productive cooperation with parents, and more motivated students as positive motivators for their job change. However, the researcher also found that teacher-orientation programs were inconsistently applied, sometime prompting confusion and division between program teachers and non-program teachers. The researcher announced her intention to create a handbook to alleviate some of this confusion and help new teachers better understand the resources available to them. Areas for future research include the relationship between teacher-training and job success in challenging inner-city environments, location of student teaching, and specific methodologies used in orientation programs.