The State of Illinois estimated that at least 4,000 new K-12 teachers were hired last school year. These new teachers and others who are new to the profession will be expected to help students’ recover from learning loss and the social-emotional toll of the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic, while mastering digital teaching and learning technologies. New teachers/clinicians will be expected to provide much needed social-emotional support and manage challenging circumstances for their students. New teachers and new clinicians need more support than ever before.

To support beginning teachers/clinicians in these challenging circumstances, the Illinois State Board of Education engaged the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers to design a comprehensive program that will offer every participating district’s new teachers and/or clinicians wraparound professional support including: • an assigned Virtual instructional coach trained to provide support to beginning teachers/clinicians regarding effective practices for online instruction, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed practices; • Trained in-building mentor with the sole responsibility to make the teacher/clinician feel welcomed, supported and connected in their new school; • Access to robust virtual coaching platform with comprehensive online library of instructional resources, including effective-practice videos, and software tools that help teachers analyze examples of each other’s teaching and provide feedback and support to one another; and • Support and feedback through one-on-one and small group virtual coaching sessions organized around Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching Clusters.

Click here for a detailed overview of the Virtual Instructional Coach & Building Mentor program.