Teach For America (TFA) is an organization that aims to address educational inequity in part through a program of training and placing teachers in U.S. K-12 public schools that have the highest proportions of high-poverty students. In this report, the authors quantify the impacts of Teach For America Indianapolis (TFA Indy) on student and school…

Rebecca Ashe, a first-year mathematics teacher at North Hills High School, considered herself well-prepared after her university preparation. She is energetic and dedicated to her students, providing real-world examples in her classes from past experiences as an engineer. After 3 months in the classroom, however, Rebecca had become disheartened…

Entering academia can be a stressful and overwhelming experience for any first-year professor. Nobody expects that their first year as an early career professor will involve having to navigate the unique difficulties that can arise during a global crisis. This article takes a multidisciplinary approach to persevering through the unique struggles…

Collaboration among novice special education teachers and their general education colleagues can bolster the impact of induction programs for all novice teachers, including special education teachers. Strong, supportive collaborative structures also can influence novice special education teacher retention. A Professional Learning Community--the…

This is the story of a beginning teacher, Ben. Ben was part of a mixed-method, qualitative study directed at exploring the student-teacher relationship experiences of beginning teachers. Time, mentor relationships and student-teacher relationships were all found to play an important role in the willingness, longevity, and efficacy of beginning…

New teachers need help. From day one, new teachers, largely on their own, are responsible for running a classroom and ensuring student learning, as well as fulfilling administrative requirements. Little wonder that 14% of new teachers leave by the end of their first year, 33% leave within three years, and almost 50% leave in five years (Ingersoll,…

This qualitative study investigates strategies of resilience exhibited by fifteen novice teachers employed in high-needs areas, such as in urban and rural contexts and in special education. Findings indicated that teachers utilised a variety of strategies, including help-seeking, problem-solving, managing difficult relationships, and seeking…

Novice teachers often struggle during the transition from being students of teaching to teachers of students. Consequently, high attrition rates characterize the first 3 years of teaching, underscoring a need to provide better support for beginning teachers. This investigation sought to answer the following question: How are 1st-year teachers…

Many would say that while there are two ways to enter the teaching profession--traditional and alternative--there seems to be a common way to leave it: quickly. Across the board, more than half of beginning teachers leave teaching before their fifth year, and that percentage is even higher in urban public schools and for those prepared by some…

Background: The need to support new teachers in urban public schools is well established, given current shortages and research that highlights serious issues with teacher retention. Debate continues about approaches to support for new teachers, including questions about the importance of developing an inquiry stance toward teaching. As more…

Despite a history of research in general education on novice teachers, researchers have only recently begun to investigate the experiences of beginning special educators. Many of these studies describe problems encountered, noting the high attrition rate among beginning special education teachers and emphasizing the importance of keeping qualified…

In order to better prepare pre-service teachers for potential challenges in their first year of teaching, it is critical for both teacher educators and supervising teachers to provide strategies to strengthen pre-service teachers' beliefs and maintain their motivation. In this article, strengths-based theories are reviewed to provide a discussion…

In this study we explore the experiences of new teachers in urban schools at the intersection of three major policy agendas--alternative certification, new teacher retention, and the small schools movement. We examine alternatively certified teachers' perceptions of the rewards and challenges of teaching in small schools, the support neophyte…

Teacher retention has become a national crisis. This case study describes one principal's efforts to support new teachers and reduce the turnover rate at her school. Recognizing the problem a few years ago, the principal took what she thought were a number of proactive, decisive steps to resolve the issue--she is doing all the right things.…

As a two-year "veteran," the author remembers well how much a little moral support and a smile can mean for a newly-minted teacher. It kept her going in those first few exhausting, confusing weeks. Building those connections is vital both for new teachers and for their profession. With so many new teachers leaving after just a few years (over…