Teachers who started their careers with a mentor were more likely to continue teaching than those who did not, a federal study finds.
The Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study began tracking about 155,600 new teachers in the 2007-08 school year, and three-fourths were still teaching five years later. Early supports seemed to make a difference: Of the teachers who had a mentor in their first year, 80 percent stayed in teaching all five years, 16 percentage points more than the rate for teachers who did not have an early mentor.
Similarly, 8 in 10 teachers who went through an induction program completed five years of teaching, 11 percentage points more than teachers who did not.
