The survey results for all first-year teachers on sources of assistance are shown in the five charts below. To view each chart, click on the heading.

• Percent of teachers who want help from each professional source. More than ninety percent of all responding first-year teachers want assistance from their principal or assistant principal and from other teachers in the school. More than eighty percent of all responding first-year teachers want assistance from professional development activities and from their assigned mentor teacher. These four clearly are the most sought-after sources of professional help for first-year teachers. Over two-thirds of first-year teachers also name others as sources of help (frequently mentioning a special education teacher or counselor), and over sixty percent seek help from central office supervisors. Fewer than half of the responding first-year teachers seek help from other administrators or higher education representatives. The chart shows these results.
  
• Percent of teachers who receive help from each source. About nine of every ten responding first-year teachers report receiving assistance from other teachers in the school, and their principal or assistant principal. About three-fourths of first-year teachers report receiving help from professional development activities. About sixty percent receive assistance from counselors, special education specialists, or other such sources, and from mentor teachers. Central office supervisors and other administrators provide assistance to forty percent of these respondents, and representatives of higher education provide assistance to less than twenty percent. The chart shows these results.
  
• Of those who wanted assistance from a source, percent who received it. First-year teachers give the highest "satisfaction ratios" for sources of assistance to other teachers in the school, principals/assistant principals, and the others they identified individually. Nine of every ten first-year teachers who want help from these sources report that they receive it. This "satisfaction ratio" is determined by combining the percent of those wanting help with the percent who obtain it (i.e., if 80 percent of responding teachers want help from a source and 80 percent of those same teachers obtain it, the success ratio would be 64 percent (80% X 80% = 64%)). More than eighty percent of first-year teachers who want help from professional development activities or other administrators report receiving it. The "satisfaction ratio" for mentor teachers and central office supervisors is about seventy percent. On the other hand, less than half the first-year teachers who want assistance from higher education representatives say that they receive it. The relatively low "satisfaction ratios" for mentors and higher education representatives suggest that efforts should be made toward improvement. The chart shows these results.
  
• "Satisfaction ratios" by student income level. First-year teachers whose students are predominantly low-income are somewhat less likely to receive the help they want from all sources, although the differences are less pronounced than in the earlier analysis of subject areas. The chart below shows these results.
  
• Need versus satisfaction. When the results are divided into four quadrants based on need for assistance versus satisfaction, it becomes clear that first-year teachers look to their principal, teaching colleagues, and professional development activities for assistance most often and also find the greatest success in receiving help from those sources. These three sources can be termed "high-need/high-satisfaction" sources of help for first-year teachers. Mentor teachers, on the other hand, might be classified as a "high-need/low-satisfaction" source of assistance, since first-year teachers experience less success in receiving help from mentors. Part of the reason may be that a number of new teachers do not have access to a mentor program worthy of the name. This finding from the survey suggests that steps should be taken to develop mentor programs that provide dedicated teacher-to-teacher assistance for all of those who enter the teaching profession. In addition, the survey shows that first-year teachers regard higher education representatives as "low-need/low satisfaction" providers of assistance – possibly indicating that they are less likely to turn to this source because there is no established process linking K-12 and higher education in this state. This suggests that teacher training institutions should consider taking steps to strengthen their ties with the schools, improving their understanding of teachers’ on-the-job needs and their relevance as sources of help in overcoming the problems that new teachers encounter. The chart shows these results. The numbers adjacent to the datapoints in the chart refer to the list of sources on page 8 of the main study report, and readers may want to have a copy of that list before them when studying the chart.