How non-tenured, novice public school teachers describe their experience with mentoring programs

The focus of this research is to shed light on novice teachers\u27 experience mentoring programs. The primary research concern is how non-tenured, novice public school teachers in their first three years of service describe their experience with mentoring programs. Two secondary questions were addressed: does participation in a mentoring program affect teacher retention? And, what are the factors that contribute to the attrition and retention rates of new teachers? The mentoring experience of novice teachers was analyzed. By employing qualitative methods, both survey and interview, the description of the novice teachers\u27 experience was extrapolated and studied. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data derived from the research and to report the findings of this study. Seven major findings arose out of the methodological triangulation of the data from the review of related literature, questionnaire results and interview analysis including: both sit-down talks and the feedback they generate and coaching novice teachers in writing effective lesson plans that ensure all students access to the learning are important components of a quality mentoring program teacher observation is a universal phenomenon in the beginning years of teaching but should only be one of multiple components in measuring a teacher\u27s effectiveness student success and academic achievement is affected by a teacher\u27s involvement in an induction program a novice teacher\u27s success is positively impacted by participation in a comprehensive induction program research indicates that mentoring new teachers has a positive effect on teacher retention and finally many factors lead to teacher retention and attrition including preparation, administrative support, working conditions, collegial support and socialization into the school culture, mentoring and induction programs, and salary and compensation