Mentoring Practices and Retention across New Teachers

High teacher turnover is detrimental for student achievement, particularly in schools with high proportions of students from low-income households and students of color. A large urban school district wanted to understand how its first-year teacher mentoring program could better support its goals of increasing teacher retention rates and maintaining a diverse workforce. This study by REL Northeast & Islands used teacher survey and staffing data to describe new teacher participation in the district’s New Teacher Mentoring (NTM) program, including mentoring dosage, practices, and the alignment between the demographic characteristics of new teachers and those of their mentors. It also explored how participation in the program varied by teacher characteristics and how engagement with the mentoring program related to retention. The study found: On average, most new teachers met with their mentor at least one hour a week. Teachers who spent more time with their mentor each month were more likely to be retained in the district. New teachers reported spending substantial time with their mentor on topics related to classroom instruction. White new teachers were nearly twice as likely as Black new teachers to report spending substantial time with their mentor on classroom management. Teachers who spent substantial time with their mentor on classroom management were more likely to leave the district than teachers who did not spend substantial time with their mentor on the topic. New teachers with a mentor of the same race/ethnicity were retained at a higher rate than new teachers with mentor of a different race/ethnicity, but this was driven by the high retention rate among White teachers with a White mentor. Stakeholders in the NTM program can use the study findings to develop early indicators of retention for new cohorts of teachers.