Using Improvement Science to Better Support Beginning Teachers

Abstract

The rapid turnover of novice teachers is a stubborn challenge plaguing schools across the country. The field has come to some consensus about key elements of effective novice teacher support that have potential to ameliorate this problem, although this knowledge has been applied in an inconsistent fashion. Beginning teacher support is a complex issue that functions on many levels: It impacts teachers, school administrators, districts, and the educational system and labor market more broadly. This article analyzes a collaborative effort to tackle this problem: the Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network (BTEN). We use a qualitative case study approach to analyze how BTEN schools supported new teacher development using a standard feedback process and improvement science methods. This analysis offers evidence that these methods enabled participants to learn about their schools while enacting and enhancing the teacher support process, and to reckon with persistent norms that can be obstacles to creating improvement in schools.