The state of Georgia has developed the Teacher Support Specialist Program to assist prospective mentors as they begin the process of preparing to provide support and guidance to those new to the profession. Successful completion of this program for either staff development units or college credit enables Georgia teachers to add the teacher support…

This paper compares the decision-making strategies which have been incorporated in the Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments in Georgia and the Assessments of Performance in Teaching developed for use in South Carolina. Although both instruments are designed for use with beginning teachers, the decision-making structure of these two…

An overview is presented of a performance-based assessment system, Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI), developed by the Teacher Assessment Project at the University of Georgia to measure competencies of beginning teachers for initial professional certification. To clearly separate the preparation and certification functions within…

A statutory requirement that Georgia revise its beginning teacher certification process to reflect on-the-job performance rather than work performed in college was enacted in 1973 as part of the Adequate Program for Education in Georgia (APEG). Following a statewide survey, 33 teacher competency statements were accepted for incorporation into five…

A research study of 300 Georgia first-year school teachers sought: (1) to identify first-year teachers' perceptions of their undergraduate education curricula; (2) to determine whether significant differences in perceptions exist among groups of first-year teachers categorized on the basis of background information; and (3) to determine which…