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More than 50% of novice educators leave the profession in the first 5 years of service. Novice educators were defined as educators with 5 or fewer years of teaching experience. The State of Tennessee has estimated the cost for that decision to around $28,000.00 per teacher for each local educational authority. Many researchers believe mentoring increases novice satisfaction in the classroom. Even though many enter the field of education, Freedman and Appleman (2009) found that teachers leave the profession in rates higher than other professions. Ingersoll and Merrill (2010) showed the annual turnover rate for teachers was higher than for professions like lawyers, engineers and professors. The purpose of this study was to discuss the role of mentoring in the preservice preparation of novice educators. This study included 10 novice participants with differing preservice mentoring. They were novices with traditional student teaching preservice preparation, year-long internship preparation, urban specialist year-long internships, and alternative licensures featuring a 3-week preservice preparation. Qualitative interviews were conducted in face-to-face individual sessions. After county approval participants were identified and later consented to the study. An interview guide was used and all participants signed the Informed Consent Document. During the interview process participants noted the importance of preservice mentoring. Commonalities perceived were the similarity of Millennials to "make a difference",¥ the desire to teach, and those who had "good" preservice mentoring believed it was more important to their level of job satisfaction than those who did not have "good" preservice mentors. Preservice mentoring was embraced by those with access, and those participants without a "good" preservice mentoring experience expressed a desire to have had "good" preservice mentoring. Preservice mentoring was not found as essential to the retention of novice teachers interviewed in this study. All participants indicated they intend to retire in the educational profession regardless of their preservice mentoring. Recommendations derived from this study included extending preservice requirements for alternative programs and a change in the scope of collegiate work during a novice's preservice training.

A number of recent efforts to improve mathematics instruction have focused on professional development activities designed to promote changes in teachers' practice that are consistent with the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM]. Since teacher beliefs can have a significant influence on what teachers do in their classroom, this study investigated the impact of an alternative form of professional teacher development designed to impact both general and personal teacher efficacy beliefs toward the use of Standards-based mathematics. A professional teacher development study group [PDSG] was formed that consisted of a facilitator/participant and six elementary teachers who were interested in improving their mathematics instruction. The group met over a period of six months in eight sessions to examine their own mathematical thinking and beliefs as well as the mathematical thinking of children. Results indicated that general and personal teacher efficacy changed in a positive direction toward the use of Standards-based mathematics. These results suggest that the implementation of mathematics reform may be facilitated when teachers have the opportunity to engage in a PDSG specifically designed to attend to teacher efficacy beliefs and support positive changes in those beliefs.

This study examined explicit and systematic reading instruction for Hispanic, limited English, lower SES students in a southwest Florida school district. Additionally, collective teacher efficacy was assessed to determine if differences existed between a Reading First and a non-Reading First school. A total of 68 students participated in the study and were divided equally between a Reading First and non-Reading First school. While the Reading First school concentrated resources on grades 2 and 3, all students received some degree of Reading First strategies. Available reading measures for analyses at the time of the study included the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE), the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Results from two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) did not reveal significant differences between the two groups on a pre and posttest administration of the GRADE. When the two groups were combined, repeated measures ANOVA indicated a significant difference between pre and post administrations of the GRADE with the posttest being significantly higher. Grades 4 and 5 showed significant gains between pre and posttest while grades 2 and 3 did not. It was hypothesized that as students' English proficiency improved, reading instruction became more meaningful and thus positively influenced the posttest. Both the GRADE and the DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency test were significantly correlated with the FCAT. Regression analyses revealed that both were significant predictors individually and combined of the FCAT reading score. Collective teacher efficacy was assessed with the short-form of the Collective Teacher Efficacy Scale (CTES). A total of 38 Reading First teachers and 30 non-Reading First teachers completed the CTES and a brief biographical questionnaire. Results indicated significantly higher collective teacher efficacy in the non-Reading First school. Findings did not support the hypothesis that the intensity of the Reading First program and the teacher training required would result in significantly higher collective efficacy. Differences in level of teacher education, experience, and years teaching in a school were speculated as potential variables influencing the level of collective efficacy. Implications from this study were discussed along with recommendations for future research.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based training that attempted to improve the reliability of holistic scores teachers assigned to the writings of elementary school students. Seventeen teachers at one suburban elementary school located in the Southeastern United States participated in three training sessions that allowed for scoring practice and group discussions. The trainers, or presenters, were "faculty-experts." A comparison of scores the participants assigned to students' writings before and after the training was conducted. The analyses included t-tests that compared the participants' mean scores to the scores assigned by raters from the state, a within-group analysis of reliability as measured by Cronbach's Alpha, and percentage agreement analyses. The results suggested that the in-house training activities promoted higher inter-rater reliability of scores assigned to students' writings by the teachers in this study. This study also compared teachers identified as being highly confident writers with teachers who reported low levels of self-confidence related to writing. Prior to the training, the highly confident teachers' scores tended to be lower than the state scores and the scores assigned by their less confident peers. During group discussions, however, the "high-confidence" group was just as likely to change their scores to a higher level as to a lower level, and by the end of the training, both groups demonstrated more consistent score patterns.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between teacher self-efficacy (TSES) score and observable teacher instructional behaviors (CSAS) score and student academic achievement (SOL) score. This study addressed the following question: What is the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and teacher behavior and student academic achievement? More specifically, the researcher studied the relationship between teacher self-efficacy score and observable teacher instructional behaviors score, teacher self-efficacy scores and student academic performance score, and observable teacher instructional behaviors score and student academic performance score. Research on implications that TSE has on teacher behaviors adds to a relatively limited literature base that holds possibilities for leaders to elicit positive school change through improved instructional practices and higher student achievement. To establish whether there was a relationship between TSE and observable teacher instructional behaviors, TSE and student academic achievement and observable teacher instructional behaviors and student academic achievement, this study used a quantitative analysis method that utilizes a simple linear regression model. The simple linear regression model isolated observable teacher behavior in model 1 and student academic achievement in model 2 and model 3 as the dependent variable. Control variables included limiting the study to 20 teachers who teach core curriculum subjects in grades 6-12 that also have an end of course Virginia Standards of Learning assessment (SOL). The researcher identified regression relationships and their statistical significance and interpreted results to reach a conclusion that addressed each research question. The researcher highlighted potential relationships between teacher self-efficacy and student achievement, teacher self-efficacy and observable teacher instructional behaviors and observable teacher instructional behaviors and student achievement. This included a finding that the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and student achievement for the participants in this study was significant and positively correlated. The model indicated that TSE explained 42.1% of variations in student SOL scores. The regression relationship between TSE and student SOL scores revealed a positive correlation since the standardized coefficient was 0.463 > 0. That is as the teacher's self-efficacy score increased then the student SOL scores improved. Implications for practitioners included principals considering professional development opportunities that support increased teacher self-efficacy and promote stronger student engagement in the learning process and identifying non-instructional behaviors that teachers engage in that might negatively impact student achievement. Recommendations for future investigation were also suggested by the researcher and included expanding the study to increase the number of participants. Increasing the number of participants would allow for an increase in the total number of TSES scores, CSAS scores, and student achievement scores. / Doctor of Education / This study examined the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and observable teacher instructional behaviors and student academic achievement scores. The study included 10 secondary teachers who taught a core curriculum course to students in grades 6-12 that also included an end of course Virginia SOL test for students. All of the participants in this study were from the same medium-sized school district in Virginia. The data analysis in this study determined that there was a statistically significant relationship between teacher self-efficacy and student achievement. Data analysis also determined a positive relationship between teacher self-efficacy and student achievement indicating that as the teacher's self-efficacy score increased the student achievement scores improved. The study described the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and observable teacher instructional behaviors for the participants in this study indicating TSE explained some of the variance in teacher instructional behaviors. The relationship between the variables was not statistically significant but they were positively correlated. That is, as the teacher's self-efficacy increased then the frequency of the teacher's observable instructional behaviors during the teaching process also increased. The researcher determined that the relationship between teacher instructional behaviors and student achievement (SOL scores) for the participants in this study was not statistically significant. The model supported that teacher instructional behaviors explained a small amount of the variance in student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to compare the level of efficacy of second year teachers with respect to their culturally and linguistically diverse students, and between groups of teachers participating in different induction programs. In addition, this study sought to determine if a relationship existed between the teachers' sense of efficacy with their diverse students and the support and training the teachers' received from their respective induction programs. This study was based on quantitative research methods. The data for the study was collected in February 2005, from each second year teacher participant in one of three California Teacher Induction Programs. The instruments used to collect data were the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). A comparative and correlational study was used to investigate the second year teachers' sense of efficacy, and the extent to which they perceived their induction programs to have articulated known effective practices in relation to culturally and linguistically diverse students. The findings of this study indicated that the participating teachers felt less efficacious in instructional strategies and student engagement, and equally efficacious in classroom management as those teachers who served as the sample group for the development of the OSTES. Teachers indicated that they perceived some of the weaker components of the support and training of the induction programs in areas that centered around “language issues” such as: identifying language objectives, differentiating instruction based on language needs, and incorporating appropriate teaching strategies for language needs. This was further substantiated in the intercorrelation between teacher efficacy and the teachers' perception of emphasis of best practices for diverse students by their respective induction program. Specifically, the intercorrelations found correlations between teachers sense of efficacy and their perceptions of the support and training of their induction program in the following areas: differentiated instruction, instructional strategies, grouping strategies, and identifying key content vocabulary. The findings suggest that induction program administrators need to provide novice teachers serving diverse students with opportunities to create and implement lessons with language objectives and provide more training on instructional strategies that support meeting those objectives.

This project was designed to discover a possible correlation between the theories surrounding teacher efficacy and Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943). Teacher efficacy is a sense of confidence that teachers have in knowing that teachers can truly make a difference in the lives of their students. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943) theory was a concept created which explores five levels of life needs. These needs are illustrated in the form of a pyramid and allow for the understanding and development of Self-Actualization, or one's greatest potential. The foundation for this research was the hypothesis that if teachers have a high level of efficacy as well as a focus on the desired level of achievement, known as self-actualization, found in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943), then they would have an optimal learning environment for their students. This study was conducted by administering two surveys to ten teachers located in Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York. The surveys were made up of approximately twenty questions each, with one in regards to teacher efficacy, and the other referencing self-actualization. The surveys were completed anonymously, and then analyzed to research if one's level of teacher efficacy and focus on self-actualization enhanced their teaching environment. The correlation for these two views relates to the attitudes and perceptions teachers have on themselves and their abilities. At times, teachers who have a positive . outlook on education, believe in the potential of their students, and create classroom environments that integrates the strengths of each child are also confident, optimistic individuals who focus on achieving their best life. The potential allows for a dedicated, encouraging, and respectable role model for students.

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