§18A-3-2b Beginning teacher internships. - West Virginia Statutes

§18A-3-2b. Beginning teacher internships.

(a) Every person to whom a professional teaching certificate is awarded after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-two, shall successfully complete a beginning teacher internship program under the provisions of this section, except such persons who were awarded a professional teaching certificate on the basis of at least five years teaching experience in another state.

The beginning teacher internship program is a school based program intended to provide appropriate staff development activities and supervision to beginning teachers to assure their competency for licensure to teach in the public schools of this state. The beginning teacher internship program shall consist of the following components:

(1) A professional support team comprised of the school principal, who shall be the chair of the professional support team, a member of the county professional staff development council and an experienced classroom teacher at the school who teaches the same or similar subject and grade level as the beginning teacher and who shall serve as a mentor for the beginning teacher;

(2) An orientation program to be conducted prior to the beginning of the instructional term, but within the employment term, supervised by the mentor teacher;

(3) The scheduling of joint planning periods for the mentor and beginning teacher throughout the school year;

(4) Mentor observation of the classroom teaching skills of the beginning teacher for at least one hour per week during the first half of the school year and which may be reduced at the discretion of the mentor to one hour every two weeks during the second half of the school year;

(5) Weekly meetings between the mentor and the beginning teacher at which the mentor and the beginning teacher discuss the performance of the beginning teacher and any needed improvements, which meetings may be reduced at the discretion of the mentor to biweekly meetings during the second half of the school year;

(6) Monthly meetings of the professional support team to discuss the performance of the beginning teacher which meetings may include all mentor members of all professional support teams at the school if helpful in the judgment of the participants;

(7) In-service professional development programs provided through the professional development project of the center for professional development for beginning teachers and for mentors both of which will be held in the first half of the school year;

(8) The provision of necessary release time from regular duties for the mentor teacher, as agreed to by the principal and the mentor teacher, and a stipend of at least six hundred dollars for the mentor teacher for duties as a mentor teacher; and

(9) A final evaluation of the performance of the beginning teacher completed by the principal on a form developed by the state board of education.

(b) The final evaluation form shall be submitted by the principal to the county school superintendent and shall include one of the following recommendations:

(1) Full professional status: A recommendation of full professional status indicates that the beginning teacher has successfully completed the internship program and in the judgment of the principal has demonstrated competence as a professional educator;

(2) Continuing internship status: A recommendation of continuing internship status indicates that in the judgment of the principal the beginning teacher requires further supervision and further employment in the district should be conditioned upon successful completion of an additional year under a beginning teacher internship program; or

(3) Discontinue employment: A recommendation to discontinue employment indicates that in the judgment of the principal the beginning teacher has completed two years of employment under supervision in a beginning teacher internship program, has not demonstrated competence as a professional educator and will notbenefit from further supervised employment in the district.