The Impact of Mentoring on Teacher Retention: What the Research Says

In recent years there has been a growth in support, guidance, and orientation programs — collectively known as induction — for beginning elementary and secondary teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has just published a study by Richard Ingersoll that is the first-ofits- kind review of the research on induction and mentoring. The findings suggest that teacher induction and mentoring programs can have a positive impact on teacher retention and calls for more robust research in order to provide stronger support for policy recommendations. The report's primary objective is to provide policymakers, educators, and researchers with a reliable assessment of what is known, and not known, about the effectiveness— the value added — of teacher induction programs. In particular, this review focuses on the impact of induction and mentoring programs on teacher retention.