An Investigation of the Effects of Variations in Mentor-Based Induction on the Performance of Students in California

By Stephen H. Fletcher, Michael Strong, Anthony Villar. Teachers College Record, 2008

115 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background/Context Policy makers are concerned about teacher shortages and the high rate of attrition among new teachers. Mentor-based induction has been shown to reduce the numbers of new teachers leaving schools or the profession. However, staying in the profession does not mean that new teachers are effective in helping students learn. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of the project was to study how variations in new teacher support programs are related to changes in student achievement. Research Design Three districts that had participated in the New Teacher Center training program were asked to be a part of a study about program effectiveness. Using data collected from interviews with district officials, the programs of the districts were categorized based on the mentor/novice ratio. This ratio was selected because it has implications for mentor selection, mentor training, and contact time between mentors and new teachers. Districts also provided achievement data for students taught by new teachers in Grades 2–6. Population/Participants/Subjects Three school districts in California agreed to participate in the study. The number of participants in the three districts included, respectively, 17 new teachers and 424 students; 31 new teachers and 709 students; and 51 new teachers and 1,288 students. Data Collection and Analysis Two types of data were used for the study. First, a numerical score was created for each program based on the mentor/novice ratio. Second, achievement scores from two consecutive spring testing periods were obtained from districts for students taught by new teachers in the elementary grades. Districts were treated as separate case studies, with student achievement being in terms of student and class variables. For one district, we also compared class level achievement for teachers with different years of experience. Conclusions/Recommendations Mentor-based induction may have a positive effect on student achievement if the program allows for weekly contact and mentor selectivity is high.

Subfields: Education

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Citations in the corpus

The Impact of Induction and Mentoring Programs for Beginning Teachers (2011, background): “Fletcher et al. (2008) focused on the effects on student reading achievement of teachers’ having”
Quality Teacher Induction: “Fourth-Wave” (1997–2006) Induction Programs (2009, background): “One that does is Fletcher et al.'s (2008) carefully-designed quasi-experimental study, in which they found that the impact of induction on student performance was influenced by the intensity level of how certain program components were implemented.”
Intensive Mentoring as a Way to Help Beginning Teachers Develop Balanced Instruction (2009, background): “Evidence suggests, however, that when mentors have substantial preparation and when the mentoring is instructional and standards based, beginning teachers can also have a significant impact on student achievement (Fletcher et al., 2005).”