This special report provides context and examples of new legislation impacting preparation, certification, induction, professional development, evaluation and compensation for leaders of schools and districts.

Teacher education programs can't prepare educators for everything that they might encounter on the job. Regardless of where they earn their degree--and even if they have had solid student teaching experiences before they claim their credential--new teachers are bound to face unexpected, upsetting, occasionally funny, and sometimes awkward…

This paper presents the Oregon edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's 2008 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook". The 2008 "Yearbook" focuses on how state policies impact the retention of effective new teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into three areas that encompass 15 goals. Broadly, these goals examine…

Describes the first year of a program conducted by two Oregon institutions of higher education that "warranty" their teacher education graduates. The program provides support to graduates and their employers, encourages collaboration between the teacher education program and local schools, makes the teacher education faculty accountable,…

Describes a 30-year-old new teacher's first year in an Oregon fourth-grade classroom, as he grapples with his students' diverse learning needs, inadequate textbooks, the isolation of being a rookie, and the pressures of simultaneously engaging his students' interest and meeting state standards. Lists four helpful books for new teachers. (SV)

Student learning must be touchstone by which teachers and teacher educators are gauged. Unfortunately articles in November 1996 "Kappan" on "Quality Teaching for the 21st Century" don't support this statement. In contrast to three national certification initiatives, Oregon's teacher licensure system (Oregon Work Sampling…

This document summarizes the contents of two comprehensive reports, "Review of Related Research" and "Survey of Beginning Teachers and Their Employing Public Schools." Three types of studies were examined in reviewing literature on research about the needs of first-year teachers: (1) "Teacher Reflections,"…

This report is organized in three sections. The first section discusses the need for induction programs (including impact of the lack of such programs on beginning teachers, as well as on experienced teachers, higher education faculty, researchers, society, and children); barriers to developing such programs; and ways of overcoming those barriers.…

In the summer of 1986, representatives from Southern Oregon State College, the Northwest Regional Laboratory, and the Josephine County School District formed a consortium to design an induction program for beginning rural teachers. During its first year, the consortium presented special on-site graduate credit courses addressing problems new…