Investigated Japanese beginning teachers' perceptions of their initial teacher preparation and induction. Surveys indicated that teachers gave low ratings to their initial preparation and initial development of knowledge and skills. They believed they gained skills through their work as teachers. First year teachers' perceptions of knowledge,…

The success of Project Launch, a teacher induction program sponsored by a regional teacher center and a consortium of universities, is compared for rural and non-rural participants. Indicators of success include teacher accomplishment of action plan goals, teacher self and mentor assessment of teaching strengths related to action plan goals,…

The Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) is a standards-based program that embeds opportunities to learn key ideas and understandings in learning to teach. This study investigated whether the teaching practice of STEP graduates reflects the STEP vision of good teaching. Participants were 10 STEP graduates from the classes of 1999 and 2000,…

Urban Teacher Residencies (UTRs) are an emerging innovation designed to embody best practices in recruitment, screening, preparation, placement, induction, and teacher leadership for urban school districts. UTRs can be a key element of urban districts' portfolio of pathways into teaching and a lynchpin of a larger strategy to strengthen the…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) Misread: Why Congress Isn't Giving Her the…

This guide describes a teacher mentor program for special education teachers in the Saint Tammany Parish Public School System, Louisiana. The Special Education Mentor Program provides peer support and professional development opportunities for new special education teachers. The program is intended to give immediate as well as long-term support to…

This study evaluated an induction year mentorship program in conjunction with the extended Generic Special Education Teacher Training Program at Texas A&M University. A questionnaire was developed and administered in the spring of 1989 to two groups of individuals for an extended year generic special education program, eight student teachers…

The first few years of teaching are the most challenging. During these years, teachers are most likely to become discouraged and disillusioned. Yet these early years are also the time when teachers establish practices that last throughout their careers. This book focuses on new teachers' needs while emphasizing high-quality teaching through the…

The author discusses mentoring and training strategies that enhance adjunct faculty members' teaching effectiveness in undergraduate science laboratories and foster a sense of common enterprise within the institutional environment. These strategies include the preparation of an "Adjunct Faculty Handbook", mentoring and peer-support programs, and…

A study explored the socialization process of beginning teachers participating in formal teacher induction programs. The focus was on perceived sources of influence on classroom practices. The findings suggest that a wide array of features compete for the attention of the first year teachers as they make instructional decisions. Over the course of…

In 2003 the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future convened a design team to launch the Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC) project. The initial one-year phase, funded by AT&T, involved a TLINC design team partnered with four communities, Pueblo, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Maine; and Socorro, Texas. The…

Describes an Illinois high school teacher mentoring program designed to promote interactions between new and experienced teachers, share research on effective instruction, and disseminate information on school policies and routines. This article summarizes program development stages for use of administrators considering similar programs. (MLH)

Research was conducted to investigate how beginning teachers perceived the adequacy of their preparation for implementing primary school programs' critical attributes as specified by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Although 89 out of 100 teachers reported their training programs contained information about KERA, 57% stated that most of…

This paper reports on a randomized experiment to study the impact of an alternative teacher preparation program, Teach for America (TFA), on student achievement and other outcomes. We found that TFA teachers had a positive impact on math achievement and no impact on reading achievement. The size of the impact on math scores was about 15 percent of…

Novice teachers often face personal and professional stresses during their first year of teaching because of lack of experience, support, and guidance. In response to these problems, Wayne State College, 2 Nebraska Educational Service Units, and 37 local school districts in Northeast Nebraska entered into a partnership designed expressly to be an…