Teacher educators have the task of identifying skills most needed by pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to describe teacher concerns over different stages of teacher development. A three-part instrument consisting of a teacher concerns statement, a Likert-type scale of concerns and demographic data was…

Correlations for PDAS scores from year to year were moderate, and experienced teachers generally outperformed their novice peers. Data suggest a weak-to-moderate relationship between 3-year averages of teachers' PDAS and student growth scores.

This research studies the effects of a writing community on three novice, middle school, Title I language arts teachers' perceptions of themselves as educators and as writers. The participants wrote on topics of their selection, on a bi-monthly basis, for one semester, to explore their teaching and learning. The teachers are in their first…

This study examines the relative distribution of salary schedule returns to experience for beginning and veteran teachers. We argue that districts are likely to benefit from structuring salary schedules with greater experience returns early in the teaching career. To test this hypothesis, we match salary data to school-level student performance…

Each year, Austin Independent School District Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) staff develop a plan of work to describe the scope of work for the coming year. The plans that make up this document identify programs to be evaluated and services to be provided by DRE staff and provide the blueprints for evaluation that staff will follow…

Research on teacher development reports significant early-career increases in teacher effectiveness, but the extent to which this is attributable to the development of teachers who persist or to the attrition of less effective teachers is unclear. In this study of novice teachers in North Carolina public schools, the authors investigated the…

This study explored the challenges facing 1st-year alternatively certified teachers of mathematics and science in urban middle schools. Four teachers, participants in a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, were followed from preservice training through their 1st year of teaching, having taken part in…

This self-study explores the instruction of a novice teacher by an expert mentor teacher, while applying the strategy of asking questions instead of the more common pattern of giving advice and guidance in the form of telling. The study examines the educational potential embedded in the question-asking strategy as a key mentoring resource when…

This report summarizes 2012-2013 AISD REACH peer observation scores, the stability of scores overtime, teachers' perceptions of peer observation, the relationship between peer observation and other measures of teaching, and the program cost.

This article describes 10 lessons learned from two decades of new teacher induction. These include: (1) A new teacher induction program requires a systemwide commitment to teacher development; (2) Induction programs accelerate new teacher effectiveness; (3) Standards-based formative assessment tools document impact; (4) Induction programs build a…

"Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and Learning in the Middle Years" provides pre-service and early career teachers with a pathway to understanding the needs of students as they make the important transition from primary to secondary schooling. The book explores contemporary challenges for teaching and learning in the middle years, with a…

In 1999, it was estimated that 50% of new teachers leave urban districts in less than five years. New urban teachers face a host of demands that can contribute towards stress and burnout. While some of the literature has focused upon teacher stress, to date none has focused upon new teachers who are enrolled in alternative licensure programs with…

This longitudinal study examined how the approach leaders in two schools took to implementing the Common Core State Standards shaped the way that two first-year teachers constructed meaning related to being a teacher. Instructional leadership constructs and threat rigidity theory were used to analyze qualitative data gathered over a nine-month…

During the 2009-2010 school year, 479 new teachers in the Austin Independent School District were mentored by 419 experienced teachers during more than 12,000 sessions. Planning was the most common type of mentoring activity.

Mentoring of novice teachers has become a prevalent component of programs that help beginning teachers. A conceptualization of mentoring practice that rests on a shared vision of good mentoring, however, needs to be developed so that novice teachers receive more than emotional support or professional socialization. Knowing how to be a good mentor…