Rockdale presents expanded professional learning, launches teacher-retention survey

Rockdale County Public Schools officials described a year-long professional learning plan, new-teacher induction and mentor supports and said the district has launched a teacher-retention survey administered by a third party.

The Office of Professional Learning outlined summer and early-year activities designed to align teacher support with district priorities of attendance, behavior, content mastery, development and engagement. Presenters said 153 new teachers attended July new-teacher orientation, and the office offered more than 215 sessions during a multi-site professional learning day. Dawn Smith, coordinator for teacher effectiveness, and other presenters described a teacher induction program (TIP) for teachers in their first three years and a mentor-leader structure to provide ongoing coaching, instructional artifacts review and monthly supports.

The board pressed staff about retention drivers, including compensation. Superintendent Chesser and staff said the district is collecting data to understand why teachers leave. Chesser said exit-survey work is underway and that "Miss Stevens" (staff member) distributed a teacher-retention survey through Hanover Research, a third-party vendor; the presentation described the vendor as the survey administrator and the superintendent said analysis will be shared with the board when available. On anonymity, staff said the Hanover Research instrument is anonymous; the staff member who spoke (unnamed role in the transcript) said the consultant will provide aggregated analysis and the district will share results and a plan once analysis is completed.

Board members emphasized culture as a retention factor alongside pay. One board member asked whether the district had formally asked returning teachers why they came back; presenters said informal conversations cited the district’s "family atmosphere." The professional learning office also said it gathers session feedback after every event and will use that data to adjust future trainings.

District staff described measures to track TIP progress, including retention checks at 30, 60 and 90 days, review of instructional artifacts, and mentor feedback. Presenters said they plan to monitor new-teacher confidence via post-checks and coaching notes. The board did not vote on any policy changes during the work session; the superintendent said more analysis is forthcoming from the external survey.