Mentoring Beginning Public School Teachers

According to Johnson (2001), teaching has been a career in which those with the least experience face the greatest challenges and most difficult responsibilities. This helps substantiate the belief espoused by our national, state, and local educational leaders that beginning teachers need a quality support system in order to achieve success during those "first few crucial years" of teaching. Novice public education teachers walk into their classrooms on the first day, fully expected to perform the same job as veteran teachers. Is it any wonder that one-third of new teachers leave the profession within the first 3 years (Ingersoll, 2002)? While there are various aspects that play a significant role in the decision teachers make to leave the profession, 43% of those who change careers cite "inadequate support" as their primary basis (Ingersoll, 2002). Teacher mentoring is an essential topic in education today that is making steady progress in U.S. policy initiatives aimed toward teacher induction and retention. In this article, we examine the basis for the concept of mentoring, as well as offer a model for mentoring program implementation. Out primary objective is to present beginning teacher mentoring as a medium of reform to current policy and practice in American public education. The Basis for Teacher Mentoring in Education Based on an evaluation conducted in 1999 by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, the Education Commission of the States (ECS) recommended that teacher preparation and professional development be reformed, including the establishment and funding of mentoring programs for early-career teachers. In their report, they defined teacher mentoring as: a formalized relationship between a beginning teacher and a master teacher (mentor) that provides support and assesses teaching skills. Duties of the mentor may include advising about instructional content and strategies, demonstrating classroom instruction, observing the beginning teacher's instruction, consulting about lesson plans and objectives, advising about school/district resources and student and parent relations, and informing the new teacher about the expectations of the school, the district, and the state. (p. 1) In addition, ECS reported that more than 60% of states now have legislation on the books with regard to teacher mentoring program implementation and funding. Twenty-two states require beginning teachers to participate in supervised mentoring programs as conditions to licensure and/or employment, and many states offer stipends to mentors who participate in such programs. Most recently, on April 3, 2003, during the first session of the 108th Congress, a bill proposed in the House of Representatives was enacted to authorize grants to local educational agencies for teacher mentoring programs. Congress found that teachers without a mentoring program leave the profession at a rate nearly 70% higher than those who participated in mentoring programs. Mentoring support for new teachers has steadily become an element of the expansive effort designed at improving public education in the United States. Enthusiasm for mentoring has been intensified by the ever-growing concern about the dilemmas faced by new teachers. These problems are evidenced by the massive attrition rates seen during the first 3-5 years of beginning teachers' careers. Mentoring may be one answer that can help to increase the retention rates of talented teachers. Gold (1996) pointed out that the research shows that structured mentoring programs within schools are highly effective in helping to ease the transition from collegiate teacher preparation programs to the real world classroom environment. Cohen and Galbraith (1995) give valuable insight into the aspects of mentors as learners in the workplace and the relationship of mentoring within the learning society. …