Stopping the Leak: Retaining Beginning Teachers

Abstract

The need for teacher retention has prompted numerous American states to develop alternative routes to teacher licensure that require support for beginning teachers, as the majority of them do not require the traditional student-teaching component, therefore a support system is critical in the early years. The goal of mentor training is to offer a support mechanism that will retain novice teachers and assist them in developing their teaching skills. Induction programs with mentoring assistance have contributed to the education system by improving retention, increased position attitudes toward teaching, applied pedagogical constructs, improved the performance of students and attracted much need minority teachers. This article describes such a program, the Texas Beginning Educator Support System (TxBESS) which has supported over 10,000 beginning teachers since its implementation in 1999. A group of TxBESS supported interns was surveyed and the data suggest that both retention rates and teacher satisfaction were high. The interns reported satisfaction particularly with regard to the effectiveness of the mentors. [Author abstract, ed]