Home
Participants & Programs
NNECN Overview
Design Features
Question and Answers
Professional Development
NNECN Benefits
Partners & Collaborators

 

A TRI-STATE NETWORK

The Northern New England CoMentoring Network (NNECN), established with funding from the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration between Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. This unique tri-state program addresses the critical need to support and retain qualified middle and high school mathematics and science teachers, while building strong teacher leadership in Northern New England.

 

MENTORING SUPPORTTeacher

While content mentoring is the centerpiece of NNECN, mentoring by itself is not the panacea for supporting new teachers. This content-focused, three-year initiative will help schools put bold and ambitious new visions of mentoring and long-term, ongoing professional development into practice. NNECN will develop a supportive learning community among teacher mentors, new teachers, higher education faculty, and science and mathematics reform leaders. This community, called a co-mentor network, will provide significant support for new teachers and teacher mentors, while focusing on science and mathematics content and professional knowledge at all levels of expertise within a school.

 

TEACHER LEADERSHIP

Accomplished mathematics and science teachers, with the desire and skills to be effective mentors, are at the heart of the NNECN program. Selected teachers and their schools will receive extensive professional development, materials and resources, and access to science and mathematics reform leaders to elevate their own professional skills and knowledge. Learning strands throughout the program are designed to help mentors effectively support new teachers, as well as improve the professional learning of the entire school mathematics and science community. Administrator support, flexible release time, and stipends are provided to support mentor teachers.

 

GOAL

The overarching goal of NNECN is to support, nurture, guide, and retain new science and mathematics teachers while elevating the professional learning of experienced teachers for the purpose of improving the quality of all teachers.

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF NNECN

  • Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont’s state standards combined with national standards, provide the vision of effective mathematics and science education. To fulfill this vision, teachers need a wide range of knowledge and skills, which comes from research, scholarly thought, validated practice, and the expertise of other practitioners and reform leaders.

  • Every student deserves a well-qualified teacher who understands his/her subject matter deeply and can teach it effectively.

  • Leadership for mentoring and professional development is a shared process that includes understanding adult learning, the change process, facilitation skills, and building learning communities, combined with a rich array of content tools.

  • Mentor teachers need the ongoing support of administrators and other mentors to be fully successful.

  • NNECN respects, uses, and is based on knowledge and research in the areas of professional development, teacher induction, and mathematics and science education reform.

  • Experience in a supportive, intellectually stimulating, and rigorous learning community enables mentor teachers to create one in their own setting that includes all teachers and provides opportunities for new teachers to grow and interact in a collegial environment.

 

OUTCOMES FOR MENTORS

  • Understand and apply key research findings regarding curriculum, instruction, and assessment; professional development; adult learning; and the change process as they relate to mathematics or science education.Class time

  • Gain deeper understanding of content and content pedagogical knowledge.

  • Develop knowledge and skills of formal mentoring and coaching practices.

  • Develop a personal and collegial relationship with a new teacher and support him/her through the induction process or his/her transition to teaching in a new content area.

  • Serve as district advisors for standards-based and research informed practice in mathematics and science teaching and induction practices.

  • Move toward or assume new leadership roles and/or career pathways for supporting science or mathematics education.

  • Click here to see a chart of the continuum of NNECN outcomes as they evolve over the 3 years of the project.

 

OUTCOMES FOR NEW TEACHERS

  • Gain confidence and expertise in standards-based and research-informed content and pedagogy.

  • Successfully complete his/her induction period.

  • Form collegial relationships with other teachers and gain linkages to important resources for improving science and mathematics teaching.

  • Remain in the teaching profession as a highly qualified science or mathematics teacher.

  • Provide opportunities for all students to learn effectively.

  • Be a contributing member of a professional learning community

 

OUTCOMES FOR SCHOOLS

  • Increase the retention of new teachers.

  • Improve science and mathematics teaching among all teachers.

  • Increase access to tools and resources for supporting standards-based and research-informed teaching and learning in science and mathematics.

  • Develop a sustainable, high quality mentoring system that meets the specific demands of science and mathematics, compatible with local and state policies and general mentoring programs, that keeps exemplary mentor teachers in the classroom.

  • Build learning communities within the school that provide continuous support for teachers at all levels of the teaching, professional continuum in science and mathematics.
Northern New England CoMentoring Network™