Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/776907
Lots of people talk about ways to solve the teaching shortage. Al Raba- nera does more: He actively helps develop and implement new programs to recruit young people into the teach- ing ranks. Rabanera heads a team of teacher leaders, administrators and Student CTA members in the "Cultivating Teacher Leaders: A Progressive Approach to Growing and Diversifying the Teaching Profession in California" project. Part of the Instructional Leadership Corps, a partnership between CTA and Stanford University that fosters teacher-driven professional development, the team has created programs to mitigate the shortage and diversify the profession. Among them: • A prevention/intervention program to pilot in Fullerton, encouraging at-risk teens to become teachers by providing social-emotional supports and academic skill building. • A high school mentorship program, which piloted this year in Anaheim and Tustin schools, offering edu- cationally themed workshops that encourage students to enroll in col- lege teacher prep programs. • A mentorship program piloted last year at CSU Fullerton pairing col- lege students with mentor teachers, in hopes that participants will enter teacher preparation programs. • A teacher induction program, currently under development , where beginning teachers will be teamed with mentor teachers to offer feedback and suppor t. • Pro f e s s i o na l d e v e l o p m e nt wo r k sh o p s o ff e re d t wi c e y e a r l y i n S o u th e rn C a l i f o rn ia, wh i c h s e r v e as a re c ru i t i n g g ro u n d f o r te a c h e r m e nto r s . Rabanera and his team face big chal- lenges. California reportedly needed to hire 22,000 additional teachers in 2016- 17 alone. According to a recent Learning Policy Institute survey, 20 to 40 percent of teachers leave the profession in the first five years (higher in schools that serve low-income and minority stu- dents). Meanwhile, the training pipeline is dwindling, decreasing 75 percent over the last 10 years. This past fall, Rabanera received an NEA Great Public Schools Fund Grant of $250,000 to continue to develop the programs; $100,000 of the total is earmarked for student scholarships for the high school and college/university mentorship programs. Rabanera's innovative ways extend to his own teaching. He draws from a broad array of instructional strategies, ranging from Google apps for educa- tion to individual handheld responders to online-based programs that help students visualize mathematics, for example. He is one of five educators to receive the NEA Foundation's Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence, based on creative implementation of technology in the classroom. " Teaching doesn't get the respect it deserves," observes Rabanera. "I want to bring respect back to our profession. I want teachers to take back the profes- sion. It's all about networking so we can grow and move forward." MAKING THE PROFESSION STRONG Al Rabanera Fullerton Secondary Teachers Organization M A T H T E A C H E R La Vista Continuation High School " Learning never exhausts the mind." — Leonardo da Vinci " I want to bring respect back to our profession. I want teachers to take back the profession." Al Rabanera works to grow and diversify California teaching ranks; at left, Rabanera with student Vincente Castillo. 27 January / February 2017