A survey was conducted of faculty members at the 19 campuses of California State University regarding what the beginning teacher should know and be able to do. The resulting profile of characteristics of effective beginning teachers is presented in this document, focusing on nine areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These areas are:…

This pamphlet reviews five recent research studies that focus on various key aspects of school climate, a popular metaphor that is difficult to define, measure, or manipulate. "The Search for School Climate: A Review of the Research," by Carolyn Anderson, surveys the full scope of school climate literature, concluding with a summary of…

The major question addressed in a study of secondary school teachers was, to what degree do organizational incentives result in maintaining in the profession committed teachers whose primary satisfactions and reasons for persistence are related to students, curriculum, and classroom procedures? Interviews were conducted with 30 secondary school…

This research studies task-based stress among teachers in a rural setting. A 51-item instrument was administered to teachers in 12 schools to determine (1) the extent of differential reactions to a wide range of task-based teaching events, as correlated with situational characteristics (sex, age, elementary or secondary affiliation, school size);…

Although administrators cannot totally eliminate stress in the schools, they can reduce excessive stress that results in an unfavorable and often damaging climate. One method for doing this is to create an atmosphere of calm and order. Such an atmosphere results from defining and formulating objectives, converting those objectives into action,…

This study examined secondary school teachers' perceptions of their school-level environment and its influence on implementation of outcomes-based education (OBE). Participating schools were in South Africa's Limpopo Province (one of its poorest rural provinces) and were implementing Curriculum 2005, a new outcomes-based approach to teaching and…

A study investigated the effects of major social, economic, and political disruption on the perceptions of 232 Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) teachers concerning their professional lives and identities. Teachers believed they were transmitters of information and values, but felt that those outside the school did not understand the stresses and nuances…

In this paper the authors focus on one early-career teacher, co-author Natalie Gibson, whose initial teaching experiences were mediated by educational settings shaped by these different and often conflicting traditions. Their study of Natalie's early-career trajectory is concerned with understanding her effort to develop a conception of…

With No Child Left Behind's call for highly qualified teachers, the stakes for recruiting and retaining teachers have never been more important. Alabama, like other states, has struggled to develop policies and programs that effectively staff all classrooms with quality educators. The Center for Teaching Quality, with the support of SERVE, has…

In 2004-2005, North Carolina's average teacher turnover rate was nearly 13 percent, ranging from a high of 29 percent to a low of 4 percent. Turnover among teachers in low-performing schools was substantially higher, with a low of 12 percent and a high of 57 percent. North Carolina has put strategies in place to address teacher retention but how…

This article examines the effects of school organizational and educational climate, and a teacher's sense of efficacy, on general education teachers' attitudes toward inclusion of students with special needs. The sample included 139 teachers from 17 elementary schools in the Northern District of Israel. The results of Pearson correlation and…

New teachers are unprepared for school politics and the conflicts they experience with administrators, colleagues and policies. Research and practice on mentoring often ignore organizational contexts. This article explores these under-examined contexts, asking: (1) What do mentors need to know and be able to do in relation to school and district…

This report is one of nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools that served as the foundation for the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools." These nine schools were dubbed "Leading Edge Schools" because they stand apart from other high…

Enroute to exploring the role which school culture plays in the teacher induction process, this study compared and contrasted the induction experiences of two exemplary beginning teachers, one an early childhood special educator in an urban setting and the other an elementary educator in a suburban setting. The teachers confronted the same…

This paper reports the findings of three integrated studies initiated by principal/researchers in an elementary, middle, and high school. The purpose of integrating the studies was to compare and contrast teacher leadership in the following areas: characteristics of teacher leadership, motivation for teachers to assume leadership roles, supports…