Page 40 - Volume 7 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research

38 Stephanie Colwell, EdD and feedback (Breaux & Wong, 2003; Jorissen, 2002; Smith & Ingersoll, 2004; Wang et al., 2008; Wilkinson, 2009). One key piece to induction is mentoring. Mentors have been proven effective and contribute to the success of a beginning teacher (Breaux & Wong, 2003; Desimone et al., 2014). Mentor programs exist in various forms. Those with the same subject knowledge or are in the same field tend to produce higher teacher retention and satisfaction for beginning teachers (Desimone et al., 2014). Challenges exist in districts, and there are roadblocks to offering assistance to beginning teachers, such as the funding to offset the cost of release time to meet, stipends for mentor teachers for their extra time, and mentor training (Breaux & Wong, 2003; Desimone et al., 2014; Stockton, 2022). Additional Supports Beyond mentoring, researchers suggest many more forms of support beginning teachers receive during their first year (Norman, 2020; Ritchlin, 2016; Watkins, 2011). One of the increasing forms of support that has evolved is using an instructional coach who allows job-embedded professional development that helps the beginning teacher transfer skills faster (Norman, 2020; Ritchlin, 2016). The use of instructional rounds has also grown in popularity. According to City (2011), instructional rounds allow the beginning teacher to go with a group of people to observe a more experienced teacher’s classroom. Then, they meet to reflect after the observation. According to Fullan (2006), this is one of the most effective ways for beginning teachers to increase their skill set when they can collaborate with peers and get outside the four walls of their classroom. The campus principal was also identified as one of the most effective supports during the induction period (Bickmore & Sulentic Dowell, 2019; Jorissen, 2002; Torres, 2016). Torres (2016) believes the level of support beginning teachers receive from their principals is one of the strongest predictors of teacher stability. Methodology Summary In the current study, the researcher aimed to gain insights into the perceptions of beginning teachers, mentor teachers, and campus principals on the components of new teacher induction strategies that supported them during their first year of teaching and enabled them to remain in the profession in a single charter District in the North Texas region. The participants in the purposive sample included first-year teachers during the 2021–2022 school year, their mentors, and their campus principals. The purposive sampling had 10 beginning teachers, eight mentors, and five principals. The themes that emerged from the beginning teachers were Teacher Skills, Student Supports, and Campus and District Supports. The themes that emerged from the mentor teachers were Teacher Skills and Campus and District Supports. The themes that emerged from the principals were Teacher Skills, Student Supports, and Campus and District Supports. The researcher also reviewed the District documents regarding the Mentor Program Manual and the mentor training for alignment. Summary of Findings and Interpretation of Results The researcher utilized three research questions to create the interview question sets for each participant group. Themes were developed from the codes based on similarities and differences, repeating ideas, and perspectives. Throughout the process of coding the three separate data sets, themes emerged across each data set that were consistent with each other. The beginning teachers, mentors, and principals all three had consistencies related to Teacher Skills and District and Campus Supports. The beginning teachers and principals had consistencies with Teacher Skills and District and Campus Supports, while the theme of Student Supports did not emerge in the mentor participant group. Research Question 1 (RQ1) What are the perceptions of beginning charter school teachers about the components of an induction program? The researcher studied the initial dataset for RQ1 on beginning teachers, revealing three themes: Teacher Skills, Student Supports, and District and Campus Supports. Beginning teachers valued the induction

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