Did you know that 86% of teachers who had first-year mentorship remained teaching after 4 years?
Having access to mentorship and professional development is career changing for teachers. According to The Learning Policy Institute, one of the top three strategies for improving teacher effectiveness and retention is to increase access to mentoring and professional development. The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award (RLTA) provides mentorship and professional development opportunities for Chicago Public Schools teachers by offering programming for teachers to learn from their peers.
The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award
The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award is a professional development program for Chicago Public Schools teachers, focused on developing balanced literacy instructional practices in classrooms. The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Alumni Network consists of over 5,400 teachers committed to developing lifelong readers in the classroom. Teachers may apply to the Rochelle Lee Teacher Award as an Individual Awardee or as a Study Group member.
The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Study Groups
Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Study Groups are school-based professional learning communities. Study Groups develop a goal to guide their learning throughout the school year, and meet monthly to discuss instruction and push their practice to reach their goal. Study Groups allow teachers to have a school-wide impact on student literacy instruction.
The Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Summer Institute
Over the summer, more than 100 Chicago Public Schools teachers come together to improve their literacy instructional practices at Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Summer Institute. Awardees receive access to over 200 hours of teacher-led professional development, and are given the opportunity to tailor their experience to gain the resources and techniques that are most applicable to the needs of their classrooms and students.
The Future of the Rochelle Lee Teacher Award Program
In order to ensure teachers in the Chicago Public Schools have access to the mentorship and professional development they need, WITS plans to expand the RLTA program footprint in Chicago’s level 2 and 3 schools this year.
Learn more about how you can make a commitment to support this and other WITS initiatives by visiting our support page.
