Last week, the Charlotte News and Observer reported on an Urban Institute evaluation of North Carolina teachers who were part of the Teach for America (TFA) program. TFA is a national teacher corps of recent college graduates who commit two years to teach and to effect change in under-resourced urban and rural public schools across America.

The News and Observer story, “A ripple across America’s classrooms,” reported that students in classrooms with TFA teachers “performed better on math and science end-of-course tests than did students in other classrooms.” Among several factors that drive this success was TFA’s mentoring program.

“The summer before they enter their first classroom, corps members undergo intensive training and then are followed closely with observations and meetings with their program directors and fellow teachers for the duration of their two-year commitment. By contrast, most novice teachers coming from a traditional teacher-education program are at the mercy of whatever mentoring programs their school districts offer, which can range in quality from excellent to absent.”

That sounds like strong proof that mentoring can help you succeed even a tough environment like a classroom in a poor district. It was supported by an Arizona Republic article titled “Mentoring program helps new teachers defy odds,” that looked at teacher mentoring through the eyes of a single teacher. Here’s a quote from that story.

“Had it not been for a mentoring program, Mia De La Rosa might not have survived. The Sevilla West School teacher defied the odds by remaining in the classroom for at least three years. Nearly one-third of new teachers quit across the country during their first three to five years on the job. Many blame poor working conditions, according to the National Education Association.”

In education or any other field, mentoring can help you succeed. Whether you define success as overall achievement of objectives, or through the success of an individual teacher, it’s clear that mentoring works.

That’s why you need to find mentors to help you. That’s what Momentor is about. We’re building a site where you can find mentors and other resources to help you no matter what field you’re in, what Career Path you choose, or what Career Stage you’re at.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under Mentoring and Coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.