National Research
The only study of comprehensive mentoring to date using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research (MPR). The study compared comprehensive induction support (represented by a treatment derived from programs developed by the New Teacher Center (NTC) and ETS, Educational Testing Service) with business-as-usual mentoring across 17 large school districts. The method included random assignment at the school level and controlled for a number of demographic variables for both students and teachers. The findings for each of the three years of the study can be found at:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094034/index.asp for the first year,
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094072/index.asp for the second year, and
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104027/index.asp for the third and final year.
In 2011 the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project was awarded a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Investing in Innovation grants, known as "i3" that carried along with it a 10% match from private funds. The Alaska Statewide Mentor Project’s grant application was one of just 23 selected for funding. The funding, which started in January 2012, allows ASMP to serve more teachers in urban districts of Alaska than ever before while conducting a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of the mentoring model.
A thorough review of research conducted around the nation on teacher mentoring can
be found in Effective Teacher Induction and Mentoring:
Assessing the Evidence by Michael Strong at https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED522923.
Research from the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz:
The New Teacher Center (NTC) research division conducts studies related to mentoring
and the first two years of a teacher's or principal's career. The research division
also conducts evaluation studies on NTC projects, secondary analyses of existing data,
and contract research for collaborating institutions.
NTC researchers publish their findings at national conferences such as American Educational Research Association (AERA), in NTC Working Papers, in refereed journals, and through the Network of Researchers on Teacher Induction (NORTI), accessible through the New Teacher Center web site (www.newteachercenter.org). Reports, draft papers, and finished research papers related to many of the above-mentioned studies are available for download.
Other NTC research abstracts may be found at http://www.newteachercenter.org/products-and-resources/ under the "Impact/Learning Brief" link.
Other Online Research Resources:
American Educational Research Association
Center for Research In Educational Policy
Educational Research Service
Educational Resource Information Center (known as "ask ERIC")
Harvard University Civil Right Project
Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska, Anchorage
National Center for Research on Teacher Learning
National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching