Retired teachers who mentored new educators showed promise in improving math instruction, according to a new randomized controlled trial.
Researchers from the Regional Educational Laboratory Central tracked nearly 80 teachers in their first three years at 11 high-poverty schools in the Aurora, Colo., public schools from 2013-2015. Half of the new teachers were randomly paired with a recently retired master teacher who acted as a mentor for two years, including classroom observations and weekly instructional coaching.
By the end of the first year, the teachers who participated in the program had students who scored higher in math, equal to about an additional month of instruction compared with teachers in the control group. They did not show better reading performance, however, and were not more likely to stay in the district after two years. –sarah d. sparks
