Chapter 3: Impactful Mentoring Within A Statewide, Comprehensive Induction Program

In the United States, more students than ever before are being taught by beginning teachers. Thirty years ago, teachers most frequently reported having 15 years of classroom experience, while today they most frequently report having one year of classroom experience. During the same time period, teachers who report having spent five or fewer years in the classroom has increased from 17% to 28% (Carroll & Foster, 2010; Ingersoll, Merrill, & Consortium for Policy Research in Education, 2012).

The retirement of baby boomers and the persistence of teacher churn—nearly 50% of new teachers leaving the profession within five years—simultaneously contribute to this phenomenon, which has the potential to detrimentally effect an entire generation of American school children (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2004; Ingersoll & Perda, 2012; Ronfeldt, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2012). Research has shown that beginning teachers are generally less effective than their more seasoned counterparts (Hanushek, Kain, O’Brien, & Rivkin, 2005), but that high-quality induction programs can increase the rate of instructional improvement and student achievement for beginning teachers while reducing rates of attrition (DeAngelis, Wall, & Che, 2013; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Lopez, Lash, Schaffner, Shields, & Wagner, 2004).