CONCERN LIES WITH THE INDUCTION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS INTO THEIR PROFESSION. FOCUS IS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF BEGINNING TEACHERS WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION GIVEN BOTH TO THE ROLES THESE CHARACTERISTICS PLAY IN THE BEGINNING TEACHER'S SUCCESS AND TO MODIFICATIONS OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS AS TEACHING EXPERIENCE INCREASES. IT WAS FOUND, THAT TEACHERS WITH VERY SIMILAR CHARACTERISTICS BUT TEACHING IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF SETTING MAY FIND THEMSELVES AT ROUGHLY OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE SUCCESS CONTINUUM AS DEFINED BY SUPERVISORY APPRAISALS. THE PARTICULAR TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH SUCCESS IN A GIVEN INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT APPEAR TO DEPEND PRIMARILY ON THE SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS COMPOSITION OF THE STUDENTS. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND CHANGES IN TASK PERFORMANCE APPEAR TO BE ONLY SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FROM THOSE BETWEEN THE FORMER VARIABLES AND TEACHER SUCCESS. FINDINGS FORCE A SHIFT IN POSITION FROM THE ASSUMPTION THAT STATEMENTS ABOUT TEACHER SKILL, SUCCESS, PROFICIENCY OR EFFECTIVENESS ARE STATEMENTS ABOUT SOME ATTRIBUTES OF A TEACHER TOWARD THE ASSUMPTION THAT SUCH STATEMENTS ARE ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEACHER AND THE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT WITHIN WHICH HE TEACHES. ALSO INDICATED IS A SHIFT TO THE POSITION THAT THE CENTRAL REINFORCERS IN TEACHING LIE IN THE CLASSROOM.