Executive Summary

To address the challenges faced by novice teachers in low-performing schools, North Carolina created the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program (NC NTSP) as part of its Race to the Top proposal. This brief presents results from the first full-year of NC NTSP implementation (2012-13).

Overall, analyses show that:

1. Students taught by NC NTSP teachers in the state’s lowest-performing schools made significantly larger achievement gains in elementary and middle grades mathematics and reading than students taught by other novice teachers working in low-performing schools;
2. NC NTSP teachers in the state’s lowest-performing schools were significantly more likely to return to the state’s public schools overall, to the same Local Education Agency (LEA), and to the same school in the following year (2013-14) than other novice teachers working in low-performing schools; and
3. NC NTSP teachers in the state’s lowest-performing schools rated the program’s instructional coaching and professional development as more beneficial than their school-provided mentoring and professional development and also as more beneficial than other novice teachers rated their school provided-mentoring and professional development.

Limitations

The analyses presented in this brief reflect only the first full year of implementation for the NC NTSP and may not fully isolate the effect of the NC NTSP from other programs being implemented in low-performing schools. Specifically, one comparison analyzes NC NTSP teachers receiving multiple RttT services versus novice teachers in low-performing schools without any RttT supports. Any differences in outcomes between these groups may be attributable to the effects of other RttT programs. A second comparison analyzes NC NTSP teachers versus novice teachers in RttT schools that declined participation in the NC NTSP. Any differences in outcomes between these groups may be attributable to other factors related to these schools’ non-participation.

Conclusion

While these results are only from one year of the program and cannot be exclusively linked to the effects of the NC NTSP, they suggest that the NC NTSP provides novice teachers in low-performing schools with the skills and tools they need to better promote student achievement and to persist in the teaching profession. Continued research, including a larger sample of teachers and additional years of data, is necessary to support this preliminary evidence of program effectiveness.

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Full Report PDF

Projects

Evaluation of Race to the Top

This evaluation was designed to provide formative feedback for program improvement and determine impact on the target goals of each initiative and on overall state-level outcome goals.

Published

February 1, 2015

Resource Type

Report

Published By

Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation—North Carolina