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Abstract
Teacher retention continues to be a concern in public education. The concerns related to this negative trend were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and schools and school districts are finding themselves in a precarious position. Many states and local school districts are creatively utilizing alternative certification methods to increase the teacher candidacy pool. Parallel to this concern is the retention of novice teachers once they are hired. Research indicates that a growing number of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. This qualitatively action research study examined the benefits a local school mentoring program would have on teacher retention. Participants in the study included novice teachers new to the profession, mentor teachers, instructional coaches, and local school leaders. Three research questions guided the study:
1. How did the action research participants describe the process of developing and implementing a mentoring program designed to support teacher retention in one urban elementary school?
2. How did the implementation of a local school mentoring program prepare participants for their first year of teaching in one urban elementary school?
3. What leader actions were identified by novice teachers as most impactful to their development during their first year in one urban elementary school?
The action research design team worked to build a mentoring program by reviewing literature, planning cycles of support, reviewing feedback, reflecting on implementation, and adjusting cycles to support novice teacher retention.
Data were collected from a variety of sources including novice teacher interviews, mentor teacher interviews, focus group sessions with both novice and mentor teachers, observational debriefing notes, and researcher journaling notes. The research reviewed for the action research project suggested that implementation of a mentoring program could support teacher retention. Conclusions drawn and correlated to both the literature reviewed and the research questions support this finding. This work contributes to the research related to teacher retention through successful development and implementation of a local school mentoring program.