Induction and Mentoring Programs for the Retention of Science Teachers (IMPREST)
The IMPREST project (2017-2023) at Montclair has concluded.
Please see our findings here or in the book "The Reasons Teachers Stay: Lessons from High-Retention Schools, Districts, and Communities" by Douglas Larkin and Suzanne Poole Patzelt, published by Harvard Educational Press in 2026.
IMPREST was a collaboration between the faculty in The College for Education and Engaged Learning and The College of Science and Mathmatics.
The 5-year IMPREST study was a project aimed at identifying and sharing successful practices in supporting novice science teachers, with the goal of increasing science teacher retention rates nationwide.
Instead of just asking: “Will the first-year teacher stay to become a second-year teacher?”, we ask: “What is working in state and district efforts to retain science teachers?”
The IMPREST study focused on districts in four states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. The project goal was to identify school districts where science teachers are successfully being retained, and then go there and investigate why.
In particular, the project aimed to uncover successful practices that retain teachers of color, teachers in high-need schools, and prior recipients of Noyce Scholarships.
Click here for more information about the 2023 NSF Noyce Improving Novice Teacher Retention Conference at Montclair State University.
Learn more about the IMPREST project in Education Week.
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1758282. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Our Research Team
For more information, please contact Dr. Douglas Larkin at larkind@montclair.edu