For well over a decade, teachers have been recognized as the single most important school-level factor influencing student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000; McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2000; Rowan, Correnti & Miller, 2002; Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997). Tremendous public resources…

In the report "From Good to Great: Exemplary Teachers Share Perspectives on Increasing Teacher Effectiveness across the Career Continuum," (See full report in ERIC at ED555657) National and State Teachers of the Year shared their views on what helped them become great teachers. This accompanying "Discussion Starter Tool" builds…

Hiring new teachers and continuing their professional growth so that they remain in the profession and become effective teachers have been a challenge for decades. Research suggests that induction programs can achieve these outcomes if they are highly structured, include mentoring, focus on professional learning, and emphasize collaboration that…

This paper discusses the amelioration of college teaching by the use of peer review within a supportive mentor relationship. In such a relationship, the mentor and the more junior teacher work as peers, and this removes the punitive element from the evaluation process and adds an element of support. The peer/mentor evaluator can be simply a…

This book takes school leaders through the process of creating and sustaining an induction and mentoring program. It challenges school leaders to think beyond initial, short-term goals to a wider, long-term vision, providing guidance on telementoring in the cyberage and advice to ensure development of highly effective practices that will improve…

This paper is intended to supplement the relatively scant amount of information available to principals on mentoring and mentor programs for beginning teachers. Suggestions include: learning the basic principles of effective new teacher mentor programs with respect to design, implementation, and evaluation; understanding the local new teacher…

The staff development program of the Elmira City School District, New York, is designed to assist teachers in teaching to the specific objectives of the curriculum, and to ensure that teachers have the requisite knowledge and skills to accomplish this. The plan provides an opportunity for every teacher, building administrator, and the…

This booklet for teachers reports what participants in the U.S. Department of Education's 1996 National Teacher Forum had to say about teacher leadership. Forum participants were 120 exemplary public and private school teachers nationwide. The report also includes thoughts of teachers who used e-mail to share their ideas on teacher leadership.…

This guide assembles examples of staff development used by one large school district, Los Angeles Unified School District, to prepare teachers for the new role of mentor. In an effort to help mentors get off to a good start, the district's Professional Development Center assembled a 30-hour program of discussion panels, skill training, and problem…

This introductory-level training program is designed to develop in classroom teachers the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for functioning as successful mentors to novice North Carolina teachers. This includes background and perspectives for mentoring in North Carolina; Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC)…

This book offers a range of proven support strategies designed to help new faculty members thrive. Suggestions range from campuswide programs for nurturing newcomers to projects that help them to help themselves. Outlined is a structured mentoring program to build collegiality through social support networks. Also presented are specific techniques…

This document provides resources and tools for program developers who are designing orientations to meet the specific needs of their novice teachers. Section one looks at key questions for program developers to consider when designing an orientation (what they want beginning teachers to know about the community, district, school, and job). Section…

This report describes the Collaborative Yearlong Teaching Experience (CYTE), an extensive 1-year internship program that promotes a coaching/mentoring model of preservice education and professional job-embedded staff development in Broward County, Florida. This student teacher program is intended to help preservice teachers meet the demands of the…

Teachers for Chicago is a program that recruits, educates, and trains new teachers. The Chicago Public Schools pays for candidates to earn a master's degree in education at a participating college or university. Participants work as interns for two years under the tutelage of a mentor. A sidebar describes how rural districts aggressively recruit…

An overview is presented of the California Mentor Teacher Program (signed into law in July, 1983) and the related issues of merit pay and master teachers. The operation of the Mentor Teacher Program, the first statewide program of its kind, is briefly described. The program is said to be an outgrowth of the merit pay and master teacher movements;…