Purpose: Administrator support has been identified as a key factor in deterring teacher turnover. Yet, the specific ways school principals directly or indirectly influence teacher retention remain underexamined. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: This study includes a survival analysis to examine when beginning…

This study investigates, through a cluster-randomized trial, the effectiveness of two approaches to increasing middle school students' science learning using a traditional science curriculum. Ninety schools were randomly assigned into one of three arms: (a) a treatment arm in which the textbook curriculum was modified based on four principles of…

Formal mentoring is the cornerstone of most teacher induction programs, but teachers receive support from informal mentors as well. The authors report on findings from a study of 57 first-year mathematics teachers in 11 school districts to describe who teachers' formal and informal mentors are, how teachers work with them, and how the functions of…

Mentoring is a common form of support for beginning teachers. State and district mentoring policies vary along a number of dimensions, yet policymakers have little evidence to draw on in designing effective mentoring programs. We use quantitative and qualitative data from a study of beginning middle school mathematics teachers in 10 districts to…

We use data from a randomized controlled trial of a middle school science intervention to explore the causal mechanisms by which the intervention produced previously documented gains in student achievement. Our study finds that implementation fidelity, operationalized as a measure of the frequency of implementation of the cognitive science…

No one has clearer ideas about what is lacking in a teacher education program than a recent graduate of that program grappling with his or her first year of teaching. Researchers analyzed interviews with first-year, middle school math teachers, their principals and formal mentors to get their views on how their preservice training could have…

Informal mentors likely play a substantial role in novice teacher learning, yet we know little about them, especially in relation to formal mentoring, which is the cornerstone to most induction programs. This study analyzes survey and interview data from 57 first-year mathematics teachers from 11 districts to investigate differences in the…

This analysis contributes to efforts to improve the use and understanding of survey data in education policy research by asking: "How different are student and teacher reports of classroom instruction?" "Do student, class, or teacher characteristics account for any of the differences?" Using National Assessment of Education…