Exploration of the Impact of the Same Developmental Mentor Training Within the Infrastructure of Two Different School Districts

The literature is convincing that the revolving door presently occurring in schools as new teachers prematurely leave the profession is difficult not only on children and families, but also school staff and school-wide improvement efforts. However, there is also adequate literature that supports new teacher induction coupled with a qualified mentor as a means for reducing new teacher attrition. While mentoring has been found to be an effective approach for retaining new teachers in the profession, there has been little attention on the supports needed to implement and sustain such programs. The primary purpose of this study is to identify those components of infrastructure necessary to support the implementation and sustainability of a developmental mentoring program. Using literature from the areas of Improving Workplace Conditions and Educational Systemic Change along with Project CREATE and the national standards for mentoring programs a model for infrastructure is proposed. These components along with implications for including or deleting infrastructure from program design are considered. The outcomes from this study will be useful for those in the midst of creating and improving district level mentoring programs. The findings offer the potential to identify the root causes of instability reducing the possibility of program ineffectiveness in planning, implementing, sustaining and improving developmental mentoring programs.