The Perceived Effectiveness of Mentoring or Induction Programs of Rural/Suburban Schools in Western New York

Abstract

In recent years mentoring programs have become very prevalent around the world, especially in the United States, in which in many states it is even state mandated. Many studies have been done to determine if teachers or schools have, in fact, implemented mentoring programs. Still, "there is little research to document what new teachers experience in [these programs]'' (Kardos & Johnson, 2010, p. 24). Additionally the actual statistics and data found on mentoring and induction programs are very skewed and varied, which raises the significant problem of addressing how effective mentoring programs really are. While it is important to see how many schools are actually using mentoring programs, it is just as important to focus in on the schools that do use mentoring programs and assign beginning teachers with a mentor, to see what new teachers experience in the mentoring programs, and how effective they find them to be.