Sustaining and retaining beginning special educators: It takes a village

Using the How People Learn Framework to Examine Mentoring Conversations between Special Educators and their Mentors in an Electronic Mentoring Site

“…This is especially important within special education where a beginning teacher may be the only person in their school teaching students from a particular disability category. and type of support provided to beginning teachers [10]; however, studies support that the primary content of support is emotional support [1]. While mentees rate emotional support high and it has been associated with retention, Feiman-Nemser points out that "keeping new teachers in teaching is not the same as helping them become good teachers" [11, p. 25].…”

Early Career Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions of School Site Induction Support

“…Another study linking induction to the retention of special education teachers was conducted by Gehrke and McCoy (2007). Using a mixed methods design consisting of mailed questionnaires and individual interviews, these researchers reported on the experiences of beginning special educators in districts offering a structured induction program for its beginning teachers.…”

“…Research differs on what constitutes an effective induction experience. However, most agree that induction support for beginning teachers should include a mentoring component, time for collaboration with peers, administrative support, and ongoing professional development within a professional school culture (Algozzine et al, 2007;Andrews, Gilbert & Martin, 2006;Billingsley, 2004a;Gehrke & McCoy, 2007;Kelley, 2004;Whitaker, 2000;White & Mason, 2006;Wong, 2004). The special education retention research shows that the work environment is important to teachers' job satisfaction and subsequent retention (Billingsley, 2004b).…”

“…The magnitude of the additional demands placed on new special educators exacerbates the frustrations that all new teachers experience (Boyer & Gillespie, 2000), thus increasing the likelihood that these teachers will leave the profession within the first few years. [IDEA]), has placed greater focus on the need to develop and retain quality teachers in the field of special education (Gehrke & McCoy, 2007). The mandates set forth by NCLB and IDEA require schools to employ highly qualified teachers for each classroom (Andrews, Gilbert, & Martin, 2006).…”

“…For special education, this means that teachers are required to be experts in the field of special education as well as to demonstrate competence in the subject areas that they teach (White & Mason, 2006). In addition, special education teachers are being held accountable for the progress of their students within the context of the general education curriculum (Gehrke & McCoy, 2007).…”