Watch Over Me

Teacher-induction programs seem to work best when mentors are given enough time and resources to do their jobs well.

By Denise Kersten

It’s a Tuesday evening in the early-gathering darkness of fall, and Michael-Jon Rodney sounds weary. The first-year teacher at Matoaca High School in Chesterfield, Virginia, gave out interim grades today, and more than half his world history students are failing. They’ve quit doing their work, and faced with such apathy, it’s tempting for him to do the same.

“It gets you down,” says Rodney, who wasn’t prepared for the widespread lack of student effort he’s seen during his first months in the classroom.

According to experts, Rodney’s frustration fits a familiar pattern: Teachers join the profession hoping to inspire students, but their training doesn’t fully prepare them for the realities of the classroom. What’s more, the lifelines administrators provide to new hires aren’t always reliable. Most veteran teachers mandated by state or local officials to serve as mentors are not given time or money to provide more than a cursory orientation to their new peers. Cast adrift to sink or swim, many first-year educators quickly lose confidence or grow disillusioned, then quit. One-third of new teachers leave the profession within three years, and nearly half are gone within five years, according to research by University of Pennsylvania...