Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction:

Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction:Results from the Second Year of a Randomized Controlled Study

NCEE 2009-4072
August 2009

Correlational Analyses

Given the prevalence of supports reported by control teachers, we explored the relationship between induction supports and outcomes independent of group assignment (treatment or control) and district type (one-year or two-year). Using data from the first three Induction Activities surveys, we created a variable that reflects the number of years (0, 1, or 2) the beginning teacher had an assigned mentor and constructed three other new measures¹⁰:

The Induction Services Index measuring breadth of services received by the beginning teacher,
The Instructional Support Index measuring suggestions, guidance, and feedback on teaching, and
The Induction Intensity Index measuring program duration and intensity. The analyses use the same methods as the experimental analyses, but instead of assignment to treatment status, which was randomly determined, the key explanatory variables are the number of years the beginning teacher had an assigned mentor and the three indices, included jointly in a regression model. The results should be interpreted with caution because the analyses are correlational and not causal. In particular, a nonexperimental estimate of the relationship of induction services with outcomes may be spurious, as it will confound the true (causal) impact of mentoring with the effect of the teacher‘s own ability or motivation.

Overall, we found that induction measures were not significantly related to math test scores (p-value of F-test = 0.068) or reading scores (p-value of F-test = 0.651). However, we found that the association between the years the beginning teacher had a mentor and math test scores was statistically significant (regression coefficient = 0.12, p-value = 0.015). For measures of teacher retention, there was a statistically significant relationship between the induction activities variables and retention (p-value of F-test = 0.016 for remaining in the district; p-value of F-test = 0.001 for remaining in teaching). One measure—the Induction Services Index—was positively related and no measures were negatively related to teacher mobility for both remaining in the district and remaining in teaching. The estimate of the regression coefficient on the Induction Services Index for remaining in the district was 0.02; for remaining in teaching, it was 0.01. This implies that, for example, if the retention rate in a district were 80 percent, then an additional induction service, such as meeting with a study group in one semester, would be associated with a district retention rate of 82 percent, all else equal. All results were robust to alternate methods of constructing the indices and alternate model specifications.

¹⁰ The variable that reflects the number of years the beginning teacher had an assigned mentor is constructed using three items: the indicator variables at fall 2005, spring 2006, and fall 2006, on whether the beginning teacher had an assigned mentor. This variable has the values 0, 1, and 2 years. The Induction Services Index is the sum of nine indicator variables at fall 2005, spring 2006, and fall 2006, on whether the beginning teacher: (1) met with a literacy or math coach, (2) met with a study group, and (3) observed others teaching. The Induction Services Index has values in the range 0 to 9. The Instructional Support Index is constructed similarly using eight indicator variables on whether the beginning teacher received: (1) suggestions from a mentor to improve his/her teaching, (2) at least a moderate amount of guidance in subject area content, and (3) feedback on teaching. The Instructional Support Index has values in the range 0 to 8. The Induction Intensity Index is the sum of the average number of hours per week at fall 2005, spring 2006, and fall 2006 (3 items) that beginning teachers reported spending: (1) in mentoring sessions, (2) being observed teaching by mentor, (3) in professional development learning instructional techniques and strategies, and (4) in professional development learning content area knowledge, specifically language arts, math, and science. The Induction Intensity Index has values in the range 0 to 20.8.