Program Analysis: The Resident Teacher Preparation Program

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Program analysis is a detailed examination of every aspect of a program to assess its feasibility and requirements in terms of the availability of resources. According to Health Compass (n.a), “For the success of a program, a program analysis helps the team in understanding the key constraints that must be addressed”. Therefore, it is important to first identify the purpose of the program, collect data at various points during the program, analyze it, interpret it, and present it to all stakeholders. I work as a mentor teacher for the school district in the state of Maryland. It is the second-largest school district and faces a myriad problem of teacher retention. Every year, the school district ends up hiring over a 1000 new teachers. Several …show more content…
Besides the traditional certification path that each teacher has to undergo, there is an alternative certification path that our school district offers. This program is geared towards preparing individuals who are either new to the profession, conditional, or fresh out of college, using best practices and mentor support throughout the school year thus ensuring teacher retention. The alternate certificate program is divided into four phases, the Screening and Selection phase, the Pre-Employment Training (PET) Phase, the Supervision phase, and the Residency phase, followed by securing a standard professional certificate in education. The following steps will provide an overview of the analysis of the Resident Teacher Program that already exists and is fully …show more content…
Most of the feedback obtained from the program is qualitative in nature and collected in the form of surveys during each phase of the Resident Teacher Program. Qualitative research methods help researchers acquire more in-depth information or the words behind the numbers for a phenomenon of interest (Watkins, 2012; Watkins and Gioia, 2015). During the PET phase of the program, a needs’ assessment and proficiency survey are given to all candidates at the beginning of the program followed by surveys at the end of each week to determine the instructional quality and the needs of the candidates. Along with the candidates, the program instructors are also surveyed for their quality of instruction, candidate proficiency, and progress. During the Supervision phase of the program, data are collected from veteran teachers working with novice teachers and the resident teachers themselves in the form of surveys and data collection instruments. During the Residency phase, data is collected at the end of each professional development session of the Residency phase and at the end of the program, in the form of surveys. Candidates are surveyed to provide feedback about the program, instructional support, and mentor