MENTORS AND STUDENTS

ANNA MARY S. GUTIERREZ

According to research, mentors can help address the persistent issues of teacher shortages and job dissatisfaction. Mentoring prevents new teachers from burning out and leaving the profession.

Studies show that without a mentor, nearly one in three new teachers leave by their fifth year. With a mentor, however, that ratio drops by more than half, to one in seven.

This not only benefits new teachers, but their students as well. There is a dramatic “pass-through effect” to students, so much so that when new teachers are part of a high-quality mentorship program, their students experience major academic gains.

Students whose teachers have mentors gained additional months of learning, compared to their peers in the control group.

This just goes to show that mentorships are effective if mentors are well-trained and use strategies.

Among these strategies include regularly observing classroom instruction and providing feedback to new teachers, and using available student data to identify areas of growth for the teacher.

Mentors should meet with new teachers one-on-one, every week, to give lesson-planning advice and help analyze student work.

Three hours a month will be spent on mentorship meetings, which is actually a small commitment for the gains in student learning.

New teachers who are better prepared and have the skills to effectively teach will have students who want to learn more.

With this, they can work to close the achievement gap and give kids a fair opportunity to succeed.

Mentorship is growing stronger, as mentors help prevent teacher attrition and improve job satisfaction. Now, there’s new evidence that they can boost student learning too.

— oOo— The author is Teacher III at Planas Elementary School