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…

Current issues in teacher recruitment and employment are addressed in this collection of fifteen articles, many of them written by career planning office directors. The focus is on unemployed beginning teachers, with articles on using placement services, preparing a resume, and advice on interview procedures. Other topics include: "What Does it…

This report describes the work of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), presenting profiles that describe major professional development opportunities to enhance teacher quality created by the AFT and its affiliates: the Educational Research and Dissemination Program (which links teachers to the research they need); the Beginning Teacher…

A job analysis helped develop specifications for physical education (PE) assessment of the Praxis Series for beginning teacher evaluation. A national sample of PE teachers, administrators, and college faculty judged knowledge domains for importance and created 128 crucial knowledge statements for beginning PE teachers. An appendix provides the…

The 2009 edition of the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) third annual review of state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession. This year's report is a comprehensive analysis of the full range of each state's teacher policies, measured against a realistic…

The Idaho edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on teacher…

This report summarizes conclusions from previous reports and makes explicit comparisons between assessment approaches. The report is organized in four sections under the headings: Design, Content Analysis, Costs, and Analysis of Technical Quality. The first section (Design) describes salient characteristics of each assessment approach, the…

This literature review examines alternative routes to teacher certification and presents alternative certification regulations and policies for 19 states. Three categories of nontraditional personnel preparation programs are noted: nontraditional recruitment programs, retraining programs, and alternative certification programs. A definition of…

This report presents recommendations of the Queensland Board of Registration's Induction Working Party, whose mission was to study the role of induction in the professional development of beginning teachers. The terms of reference of the Working Party were: to advise the board on possible approaches to the systematic development and implementation…

A forum, convened to consider the subject of beginning teacher induction, focused on questions about: (1) the importance of the induction phase; (2) whose domain induction is; (3) what happens to the teacher in this phase; (4) training that is most needed in this phase; (5) how induction is related to licensure; and (6) whether induction is unique…

This teaching internship program was developed by Baruch College in response to an overabundance of new, uncertified teachers working as temporary per diem teachers in full-time classroom teaching positions in New York City. The 1-year program integrates graduate study of effective teaching with an in-school intern-mentor support system for…

The Beginning Teacher Assistance Program was adopted by the Virginia Board of Education to ensure that teachers certified by the state demonstrate the minimum competencies necessary to perform satisfactorily. The first section of this booklet describes the program's assessment component and lists the 14 competencies teachers are expected to…

This document is a review of research literature on the preparation and certification of Georgia's professional educational personnel. Following a summary of research results, abstracts of the 71 studies pertaining to teachers and the 16 studies of administrators are listed chronologically. Master tables classify the subjects of the studies by: 1)…

Competency testing is a fact of life for many new teachers. This article describes different types of tests and the purposes for which they are used in various states. Teachers and spokespersons for educational organizations and institutions express their views on testing and on how test results may affect teacher education. (PP)

A Cox regression model was used to examine the career paths of 2,327 elementary school first-year teachers. Variables studied (sex, age, ethnicity, education, and certification route) explained about 10% of the variation in teacher continuation in teaching. Future studies of teacher survival should consider additional teacher-related variables.…