Abstract
Teacher turnover was an issue of concern across the country, especially in rural school districts. One discussed strategy to combat teacher retention was new teacher mentoring programs. Mentoring programs vary drastically, even among school districts within states. The intent of this study was to determine which new teacher mentoring program components were the most valuable and most effective at retaining new teachers across four rural school districts in central Florida. The overarching research question was, “What are the relationships between retention rates for new teachers in rural school districts that have structured new teacher mentoring programs and retention rates of new teachers in rural school districts that do not have structured new teacher mentoring programs?” Participant survey answers and human resources data was analyzed through descriptive statistics, an analysis of variance (ANOVA), and a chi-squared test of independence. The findings included statistically significant results for alternatively certified teachers. In addition, correlations were found between the following variables and teacher retention: age, alternative certification, bachelor’s degree, and years in district. Three mentoring components, observation, trained mentor teachers, and other, had moderate correlations. In addition, participants found administrative support as an important factor in retention. Rural districts with structured mentoring programs, containing the four main components cited in the literature, had the highest retention rates.