Two Local Teachers to be Trained as Lead Mentors

UMass Dartmouth will train local top teachers as lead mentors, including Norton schools' own Sarah Flaherty and Jill Kelly.

Project SUCCESS acknowledges the importance of skilled, seasoned teachers using their experience to mentor new teachers. By training some of the state's top teachers to effectively mentor their colleagues, Project SUCCESS is designed to help school districts retain new teachers who specialize in high-need areas like special education, English as a Second Language, science and math.

Flaherty and Kelly are both special education teachers at

Project SUCCESS is run by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's Center for University School and Community Partnerships (CUSP) to prepare and support lead mentors in school districts across Massachusetts. This is Project SUCCESS's first year of a three-year grant from the state.

"We know that teacher quality is the most important school-related factor in student learning," said CUSP executive director Karen O'Connor. "By preparing Lead Mentors to support beginning teachers, Project SUCCESS will build the capacity of beginning teachers to help students to reach their full academic potential."

This comprehensive program prepares lead mentors through a nine-month graduate-level course, 15 online video lectures, virtual office hours, live videoconferencing and phone consultations with instructors and three face-to-face seminars in either Taunton or Marlboro.

All Lead Mentors who successfully complete the graduate course will be eligible to participate in the Mentoring in Action Massachusetts Academy, to be able to network and share ideas after their preparation year.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) selected CUSP to lead Project SUCCESS with funds from the federal Race to the Top program. Massachusetts was one of 12 states to win the funding in a highly competitive process.

"A central goal of the state's successful Race to the Top application was to ensure that every student in every classroom in the Commonwealth is taught by a great teacher," said JC Considine, spokesman for DESE. "Project SUCCESS is focused on improving teacher effectiveness and retaining teachers by providing ongoing support to experienced teachers as they serve as mentor leaders to new teachers."

Project SUCCESS director Carol Pelletier Radford designed the proposal and partnered with school district superintendents across the Commonwealth to customize training to fit local needs.

Flaherty and Kelly join a select group of 60 of the state's top teachers from 21 school districts across eastern Massachusetts in this program. In years two and three, CUSP plans to expand Project SUCCESS to more than 50 districts and train more than 250 mentors.

The school districts taking part this year are Cambridge, Chelsea, Clinton, Dennis-Yarmouth, Essex Ag-Tech, Danvers, Fall River, Fall River Atlantis Charter School, Hamilton-Wenham, Lexington Minuteman, Millbury, New Bedford Global Learning Charter School, Norton, Old Colony in Rochester, Rockland, Somerville, Sudbury, Truro, Uxbridge, Webster, and Winchendon.