Since 1998, the Teachers College New Teacher Academy has been working with schools to dramatically increase new teacher retention rates. In past years the Academy's programs have been expanding exponentially around the nation, succeeding in districts as diverse as Harlem and Moss Point, Mississippi, where the project was recently awarded a $10,000 grant.

The New Teacher Academy began as part of Director Kate Unger's doctoral work at Teachers College. Unger worked with a Brooklyn school where half of all new teachers were leaving the profession, much less the district, within a year. After the program had been applied, the retention rate grew to nearly 90 percent.

More than 600 people are now involved with the academy, Unger said, and that could soon top 1,000 if proposed new projects in spots like Nevada, New Mexico or the Bahamas are developed. By the end of this year, Unger said, the New Teacher Academy could directly or indirectly enrich the lives of more than 1 million students.

FOR MORE: "New Teacher Academy Expanding Rapidly" (Inside TC Newsletter, April 2004)

Published Friday, Jan. 14, 2005