| The teacher shortage is a complex, yet well documented problem. The shortages of greatest concern are in the large urban areas and the most rural of school systems, and are reflected most profoundly in the licensure areas of special education, science and mathematics. One of the key contributors to the teacher shortage is teacher turnover, and in particular the turnover rate of new teachers. Mentoring and other forms of support are often described as having a positive impact on new teacher turnover. This study investigates the differential causal impact having a full time lead mentor makes to a new teacher's work attitudes, and, ultimately, on their intent to withdraw from either the education profession or the organization in which they work. Study participants included 30 new teachers who received the expanded support of the experimental treatment, and 30 new teachers in a control group who received support according to state policy. The specific work attitudes under consideration were organizational commitment, job satisfaction, career commitment, job involvement and withdrawal cognition. Instruments with long research histories were used to collect data which were cleansed via exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The reduced item inventories were summed for each construct and used to test a model of teacher withdrawal cognition via path analysis. The tested model showed a good fit, which was improved through respecification. Comparing model results from the experimental group and the control group indicated there to be a statistically significant difference. The implications for state policy makers and local administers are discussed. |
