This digest examines considerations and strategies for selecting and retaining teacher mentors, suggesting that the degree to which mentors are meaningfully engaged in the mentoring process may have a significant impact on a program's success. Strategies for recruiting mentors range from opportunistic appointment to promoting self-nomination to…

Responses from 79 of 258 secondary career and technical education teachers compared 26 who left the teaching profession with those who remained in terms of their teaching commitment level and first-year teaching experience. Job-related stress and negative first-year experiences were the reasons most often given for leaving the teaching profession.…

The attrition rate among schoolteachers in the US reaches alarming proportions as it far outpaces the rate at which new teachers are trained and recruited. The results of an in-depth study undertaken to understand why new teachers leave the profession and the kind of support schools can offer to keep them from doing so are discussed.

When preservice teachers graduate and obtain their first teaching positions, they begin what education practitioners often call "the rookie year." To make their transition smooth and their first-year experience successful requires a concentrated effort on the part of administrators and experienced faculty members who serve as leaders and mentors.…

The need for teacher retention has prompted numerous American states to provide programs for training mentors. The goal of mentor training is to offer a support mechanism that will retain novice teachers and assist them in developing their teaching skills. Such a program is the Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS) which has supported…

This paper describes the New Educator Orientation Project at Leland Middle School, North Carolina. Created by a collaboration between school faculty and faculty from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, this inquiry project was intended to develop an interactive orientation manual and accompanying CD-ROM for new faculty joining the…

This report from Harvard University's Project on the Next Generation of Teachers examines why new some teachers remain in the profession despite difficult teaching conditions. Central to teachers' satisfaction is the belief that they are teaching their students effectively. Other factors include being granted novice status via reduced course…

Findings from a study of 224 first-year teachers suggest: (1) burnout begins during the first year; (2) high-school teachers are more predisposed to burnout; (3) quality teacher preparation, particularly in student discipline, may promote resistance to burnout; (4) burnout is a reflection of emotional and motivational factors rather than academic…

Queried 150 1st-year teachers and 150 mentor teachers from 86 southern urban schools regarding their work environment and professional aspirations. Questionnaires addressed affiliation, professional interest, resource adequacy, and work pressure. Resource adequacy influenced beginning teachers' intention to continue teaching. Mentor teachers…

Presents a letter offering help for an overwhelmed first-year middle school teacher hating teaching. Offers a response from her former college professor commiserating with her, advocating survival as a perfectly good goal, offering four suggestions, and remembering his own desire to quit early in his teaching career. Includes the beginning…

A study involving 156 first-year special education teachers examined the frequency and perceived effectiveness of the mentoring they received, the characteristics of the mentors, and the teachers' plans to remain in special education. The perceived effectiveness of the mentoring was significantly correlated with plans to remain in special…

In Walla Walla (Washington), an award-winning teacher mentoring program has boosted the new-teacher retention rate to 93 percent. With state funding, the program assigns each new teacher a "peer coach" and a "peer mentor," then provides training and support for all concerned. The program has become a good recruitment and…

Studied the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers, a teacher recruitment program. Findings for 4 years show many failings of the program, which has produced relatively few urban teachers with low rates of teacher retention. (SLD)

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of programs offering support, guidance, and orientation for beginning teachers during the transition into their first teaching job. This study examines whether such programs--collectively known as induction--have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The data used in the…

In recent years, researchers have argued that the shortage of highly qualified teachers in poor school districts may have less to do with attracting new teachers than with retaining them. To provide the scientific evidence that will support sound decisions about teacher induction, Mathematica is examining whether high-intensity teacher induction…