At first glance, the recent teacher-retirement reforms in Ohio seem to bring good fiscal news to school systems in the Buckeye State. With Senate Bills 341 and 342--and a series of cutbacks on retiree healthcare--the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is projected to spend less on retirement costs in 2020 than it does today. But these reforms…

An integral part of a teacher learning continuum ranging from preservice education to professional development for experienced educators, new teacher induction holds particular potential to effect change in urban education. Accordingly, this article offers recommendations for induction-related policy and programming capable of supporting beginning…

The statistics are familiar: almost 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years in the classroom. The challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers carries high costs for today's schools and students. This book uncovers some of the reasons behind the elevated attrition rates in the field of education through a long-term…

The study reviewed in this document examined the effects of a comprehensive teacher induction program for beginning teachers (i.e., teachers new to the profession) on teacher and student outcomes in 17 school districts across 13 states. The program includes mentoring, monthly professional development sessions, study groups with other beginning…

Teach for America (TFA) is a national organization with a long-established presence in Houston. The organization recruits recent college graduates and mid-career professionals who commit to teaching for two years in schools with high proportions of economically disadvantaged students (Teach for America, 2017). Since 1991, Houston Independent…

This article analyzes how participation in teacher-led, semester-long, action research projects influences early career teacher (fewer than three years of teaching experience) perceptions of support and learning. All teachers at an urban, newly developed, small high school participated in action research projects as a result of the…

In this paper the author evaluates the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program in the Rochester City School District, Rochester, NY. The author evaluates the system's strengths and weaknesses and discusses the program's alignment with New York State requirements.

Although teacher mentoring is now mandated in most states, high quality research in mentoring remains scarce (Rockoff, 2008). There is a great need to understand how such policies are implemented (Smith, 2007), particularly in teaching areas with high shortages. The purpose of this study is to compare state and district mentoring policies with…

This book examines both the promise and complexity of diversifying today's teaching profession. Drawing from a 5-year study of 21 new teachers of color working in urban, hard-to-staff schools, this book uncovers a systemic paradox that the teachers confront. They are committed to improving educational opportunities for students of color by acting…

In this paper the author evaluates the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program in the Rochester City School District, Rochester, NY. The author evaluates the system's strengths and weaknesses and discusses the program's alignment with New York State requirements. The paper addresses the benefits to teachers and the school district that…

This paper explores the intersection of critical pedagogy and nonviolence in a case study of a white novice teacher at an urban school in the Midwestern United States. Drawing on various theoretical streams that contribute to this possible marriage of critical pedagogy, non-violence and critical peace education, the authors formulate the notion of…

In "The Louisiana Recovery School District: Lessons for the Buckeye State," the Thomas B. Fordham Institute criticizes local urban governance structures and presents the decentralized, charter-school-driven Recovery School District (RSD) in New Orleans as a successful model for fiscal and academic performance. Absent from the review is…

This article explores the relationship between school contextual factors and teacher retention decisions in New York City. The methodological approach separates the effects of teacher characteristics from school characteristics by modeling the relationship between the assessments of school contextual factors by one set of teachers and the turnover…

This brief considers whether the concentration of beginning teachers in a district is associated with the district's poverty rate, racial composition, or urbanicity. Authors Douglas Gagnon and Marybeth Mattingly report that poor communities have moderately higher percentages of beginning teachers than communities with lower poverty rates and that…

A well-known authority on teacher induction programs offers the most comprehensive, up-to-date review of all recent research on the effectiveness of mentoring and induction support for new teachers. Michael Strong provides a revealing analysis of teacher induction programs and their consequences for education, teacher quality, teacher…