Teacher Tracking Strategies

Introduction | Content Asssessment Strategies | Pedagogy Assessment Strategies | Teacher Tracking Strategies | Resources

Get your graduating teachers’ contact information, and keep in touch with them. Only by keeping track of every teacher that goes through your program for at least five years will you be able to assess the impact your program is having on teacher retention. As anyone who has ever tried to track teachers knows, however, following teachers once they have entered the working world is a complex and difficult endeavor.

The most effective way to keep in touch with your teachers is through a dedicated contact person with whom the teachers have a personal connection and want to keep in touch.
To supplement the primary contact person’s efforts, collect each of your graduating teachers’ contact information, including parents’ addresses, cell phone numbers, non-university email addresses, facebook profiles, and any other useful pieces of information you can think of.
Build an online database that will allow graduates to update their contact information and employment status, similar to what alumni offices do.

Many PhysTEC sites have done an exemplary job tracking their teachers, and have reported impressive teacher retention rates that are substantially higher than those nationally reported for STEM teachers.