Retention and professional mentoring of beginning career and technical education teachers
Open Access
- Author:
- Mordan, Benjamin Ray
- Graduate Program:
- Workforce Education and Development
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Robert W Clark, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Robert W Clark, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Cynthia Pellock, Committee Member
Richard Allen Walter, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member - Keywords:
- professional mentoring
retention
career and technical education
beginning teachers - Abstract:
- A fundamental requirement for providing quality education in schools is to encourage highly qualified individuals with the necessary knowledge and skill to enter the teaching profession and remain employed in this occupation. Attracting and retaining effective teachers has historically presented a considerable challenge for schools across many nations. Experts have predicted significant teacher shortages in the near future along with a growing demand for qualified teachers due to increased student enrollment, retirement, and high levels of attrition (Tillman & Tillman, 2008). As teacher shortages continue to increase, the importance of retaining existing qualified teachers will also increase. Thus, it is essential that policy makers and school administrators develop new and better ways for recruiting and retaining new teachers. The goal of this study was to provide school leaders with information related to beginning (first-year) Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher retention and to offer strategies and recommendations focused on improving teacher retention and quality within the CTE profession. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between retention and professional mentoring of beginning CTE teachers in the United States. The specific focus was on the characteristics (demographic data) and opinions of individuals who remained in the teaching profession after completing their first year as a CTE teacher, and comparing these characteristics and opinions with those held by individuals who left the teaching profession after their first year as a CTE teacher. Specifically, this study was designed to analyze secondary data collected through the Teacher Follow-up Survey (TFS) and the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS). The TFS and BTLS are interrelated and were concurrently conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), which is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education. The secondary data used in this research included a modified sample of 110 beginning CTE teachers who taught students in grades 9–12, within public schools, during the 2007–08 school year. These findings are based on the data collected through the 2008–09 BTLS Questionnaires (TFS-2L and TFS-3L), which were examined during this study. It was determined that of the 110 beginning CTE teachers in this modified BTLS sample (CTE teachers only), 16.1% left the teaching profession after their first year, while only 10.3% of the original BTLS sample left teaching after their first year. Based on these findings it can be suggested that, for this sample, beginning CTE teachers are more likely to leave teaching after their first year than are other beginning teachers. The results presented here also strongly suggest that several relationships exist between retention and professional mentoring among the beginning CTE teachers in this modified sample. These findings indicate that effective professional mentoring does benefit beginning CTE teachers while also increasing their rate of retention. Specifically, beginning CTE teachers who indicated having been assigned a mentor were 6.64 times more likely to remain in teaching than beginning CTE teachers who had not been assigned a mentor. Based on these results, it can also be concluded that the retention of beginning CTE teacher can be significantly improved by identifying mentoring components that teachers believe will improve their teaching, and then attempt to increase the frequencies of teacher-mentor interactions in these areas. To identify the significant components of mentoring programs, this study specifically sought to ascertain the impact of selected professional mentoring components on the retention of beginning CTE teachers. Data from this study revealed that teacher retention is positively impacted by increasing the frequency and effectiveness of beginning teachers’ and their assigned mentors’ interactions in the following areas: subject matter and grade level taught by beginning CTE teacher; classroom management and student discipline; incorporating a variety of instruction methods; assessing students and interpreting assessment data; adapting curriculum, instructional materials, and/or writing lesson plans; interacting with parents; and reflecting on teaching practice. These findings provide greater insights into existing relationships between retention and professional mentoring for beginning CTE teachers and inspire recommendations for future policy and decision making in this area. It is presumed that increasing teacher retention can significantly improve learning opportunities, student achievement, and utilization of school funding. Further, findings can contribute to improving the quality of education provided to CTE students and offer information that may be used by school administrators to increase the efficiency of school funding allocations.