On June 2, a historic day for the state of Connecticut, Governor Rell signed into law Public Act Number 08-107 “An Act Concerning the BEST Program,” after the legislation unanimously passed both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly.

This legislation eliminates the video portion of the present Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) program for next year.  It also phases out the BEST program as of June 30, 2009, and replaces it with a Mentor Assistance Program (MAP), effective, July 1, 2009.

The act also creates a task force, chaired by the commissioner of education.  The task force is charged with developing standards for the new Mentor Assistance Program and necessary legislation to deal with initial education certificate holders who do a BEST portfolio next school year.

CEA President Phil Apruzzese says, “The governor, state legislators and policymakers recognize the importance of teacher mentoring and the positive impact it can have on new teachers and the children they teach.  We believe that this new legislation is a significant step forward for children, teachers and public education in Connecticut.”

The drumbeat for change in Connecticut’s teacher induction program had gotten louder ever since the 2008 session convened in February. The bill was approved March 18 by the Education Committee, focusing on the initiation of a new task force this summer that will give teachers a key role in redesigning BEST.

The task force will be charged with submitting a plan to the General Assembly by January 1, 2009, that will replace BEST with a mentor assistance program starting with the 2009-10 school year.  According to CEA, the state’s current beginning teacher program is ineffective and must be redesigned because it is critical to improving student achievement.

Public Act No. 08-107 sets forth specific components for a new mentoring assistance program and directs the task force to consider whether or not to make legislative changes that would:

• Reduce the classroom teaching load for mentors
• Require mentoring for the first two years of beginning teachers’ careers
• Expand the pool of potential mentors
• Require the state to fully fund mentoring programs.

“CEA believes that it is not a matter of whether or not we should do these things, but rather how we can ensure that they will happen,” said CEA Executive Director John Yrchik when he testified during the committee’s public hearing on the bill on March 10.

“The failures of Connecticut’s present system to provide adequate mentor support for beginning teachers suggest that mentoring cannot be done on the fly or after a mentor’s other duties are completed. Without sufficient time and funding, quality mentoring simply will not take place,” he added.

BEST has been in the legislative spotlight since the Program Review & Investigations Committee (PRC) released a report in December calling for a series of sweeping recommendations to change BEST after a comprehensive review of the program last fall.