First-year teachers: frequent mentoring but varying exposure to activities & topics

 

Mentoring of early-career teachers is a key strategy used by state education leaders in Missouri and elsewhere to improve teacher retention. At the request of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, REL Central examined the frequency, duration, activities, and topics of the mentoring received by a sample of first-year teachers in the state. It also explored whether those mentoring features were related to teacher retention. Key findings include: Most first-year teachers met with their mentors at least briefly multiple times a month. However, first-year teachers’ exposure to particular mentoring activities varied. For example, some teachers reported never being observed by their mentors whereas others reported being observed for an hour or more a month. First-year teachers also had varying exposure to the mentoring topics that the state deemed important. None of the mentoring features examined in the study had clear relationships with first-year teachers’ likelihood of returning to teach in the same district for a second year. These findings suggest that mentoring represents an opportunity for Missouri’s first-year teachers to receive regular support but raises questions about whether all mentors have sufficient resources to address teachers’ needs. Subsequent research done at a larger scale is needed to identify which features of mentoring are promising for retaining teachers. The report details work conducted by Mathematica, which operated REL Central until February 2025, in collaboration with its Missouri partners. Complete report