A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Induction of New Teachers

Beginning teachers rarely make smooth transitions into teaching. Often they are hired at the last moment, left isolated in their classrooms, and given little help--a true example of the "sink or swim" attitude toward those newly hired. Consequently, attrition rates among new teachers often are five times higher than among experienced teachers.⁽²¹⁾

Improved induction programs need to give all teachers, whether new or experienced, considerable support. In the first three years, schools and universities should focus on assisting and supporting new teachers rather than simply assessing their work.

Comprehensive induction programs should provide new teachers the necessary models and tools for beginning their teaching careers, as well as the mentors and support groups to guide them through curriculum planning. Mentors for new teachers should be assigned reduced teaching schedules so that they have time to provide support.

Induction programs should provide specific guidance aimed at helping new teachers meet performance standards for continued certification. At the end of three years, assessment of teachers' performance is critical. The evaluation should be based on rigorous, widely accepted standards for granting tenure and should involve administrators and teachers.

In the early 1980s, some states, led by Florida, began to take a more aggressive role in supporting beginning teachers, often tying induction to licensure and mandating that the new teachers go through induction programs. A recent study of teacher induction programs in the United States and the Pacific Rim economies⁽²²⁾ found that 21 states in this country had programs and an additional five states were piloting or planning programs. Still, nearly 50 percent of beginning teachers do not participate in anything more than school orientations.

New teachers beginning their careers in the sites chosen for the Pacific Rim study (Australia, Japan, and New Zealand) move from college to teaching in much more structured ways. Common among the sites, according to the study, is an environment where "all professionals take active roles in a new teacher's acculturation and transition." They do this through mentoring, modeling good teacher practice, orientations, and in-service training.

While the nature of the induction programs vary widely, the programs in the Pacific Rim sites and in the United States generally focus on two strategies: assist and assess. Unlike the programs in other countries that participated in the study, programs in the United States tend to emphasize assessment. Mentor teachers, for example, help beginning teachers prepare specifically for state certification requirements rather than focus on feedback and professional support. Recent state policies, however, lean more toward assistance in induction programs; some are not specifically linked to licensure.

Other trends in U.S. teacher induction programs include the following:

• Induction programs are extensions of the degree-granting institutions, such as a fifth-year program or an internship that combines campus-based class work and practical experience in classrooms.
  
• Professional development schools are a tool of such programs, creating cross-school professional responsibility for beginning teachers.
  
• Experienced teachers are intimately involved in designing and implementing the induction programs.

According to the study, the financing of induction programs largely depends upon whether or not participation is mandated by the state. If so, states may supplement local support. Districts may provide compensation for mentor teachers if induction programs are part of teacher accountability policies worked out between districts and teachers' unions.

Delaware's Mentoring Program

A pilot program to link mentoring programs to the new teaching standards began in January 1995 in three districts, expanded to eight school districts the following school year, and to 14 in 1996-97. All 19 districts in the state will participate by the 1998-99 school year. Working with their mentors, beginning teachers develop a portfolio based on the state's teaching standards during their second year of teaching (this can be extended to the third year, if necessary) showing that they are meeting the standards. Experienced teachers new to Delaware also complete the portfolio assessment process under a modified time line. Certification is granted if the portfolio assessment meets the established criteria.

Delaware's Professional Standards Council set out seven specifications for the mentoring program, from training mentors to matching mentors with beginning teachers to evaluating the teachers. A consultant, hired by the State Department of Public Instruction, works with the sites. The department also has sponsored statewide conferences for mentors and plans to expand them to new teacher-mentor pairs. Future conferences will focus on different instructional themes. The mentors and beginning teachers will then work on implementing the ideas together at their home schools.

The Delaware teacher induction program provides mentor teams within schools and within districts. The New Castle Vo.-Tech District, for example, created mentor teams that meet regularly and conduct staff development for themselves as well as share ideas on mentoring. A lead mentor in each building coordinates the mentor/new teacher activities. Districts have shaped and added to the state-funded mentoring program with their own ideas. Most provide release time for beginning teachers and mentors to observe each other and for mentors to coach teachers. Some districts have written their own beginning teacher/mentor manuals. The presence of a strong mentoring program in a school district has encouraged other teachers to collaborate and, in some cases, to teach as a team.

According to surveys and evaluations, not only are beginning teachers receiving the support they need, but the mentoring program is also developing networks among teachers within districts and across the state, and the mentors have "a new enthusiasm" for teaching.⁽²³⁾

Columbus, Ohio
Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Program

Designed by a joint committee of the Columbus Teachers Association (CEA) and the Columbus Board of Education, PAR is governed by a panel of four teachers and three administrators. They select the PAR consultants--teachers who are nominated for the position because of their experience, knowledge, and ability to work cooperatively with others. The PAR consultants are employed full-time out of the classroom for a maximum of three years, receiving a supplemental contract worth 20 percent of their base salaries.

Up to 35 consultants each year work with as many as 18 interns each, as well as about two dozen intervention cases. Their responsibilities to interns are to:

• Demonstrate good teaching practices, observe interns' teacher practices, and conference with and assist their interns;
  
• Plan and present new-teacher orientations; and
  
• Conduct workshops on such areas as classroom management, cooperative learning, and parent conferencing

The consultants spend most of their time with interns on direct classroom observations and conferences, varying their visits according to individual teachers' needs. They connect the new teachers to the range of resources available in the district to help them.

During the school year, the consultants prepare at least one interim report for each intern. Their final evaluation includes a recommendation to the PAR panel on whether or not the interns under their review should receive a contract the following year. The panel then presents its written report to the manager of personnel services.

PAR started in 1986 and has had a dramatic impact on the teaching force in Columbus over the years. Approximately 3,400 of the district's 4,700 teachers have been hired since PAR began, meaning that three-fourths of the teachers participated in the intern program. According to the State Education Agency (SEA), the district has a lower rate of attrition than similar districts because of PAR. In its most recent study of the program, only 24 teachers were participating in the intervention component of PAR, or less than one-half of 1 percent of the current staff, and about one-half of them voluntarily asked for the intervention.

These data indicate that the induction process is working. Fewer teachers need the intervention process because problems are detected early. Furthermore, teachers are willing to ask for help because assistance is a known value of the union and district. When PAR started, the average number of teachers recommended for intervention was about 45 a year, according to SEA.

PAR has received the Distinguished Award for Excellence in Staff Development from the Ohio Department of Education and the Excellence in Education Award from the National Education Association.

Omaha, Nebraska
Cadre Project

"It's great watching the new teachers I'm working with develop and become much more sure of themselves. And I really gain a lot of ideas from them."

The CADRE Project in Omaha, Nebraska, is both a graduate induction program for beginning teachers and a professional renewal program for experienced teachers. CADRE (Career Advancement and Development for Recruits and Experienced teachers) resulted from a strong collaborative relationship between the College of Education at the University of Nebraska/Omaha and area school districts organized under the Metropolitan Omaha Educational Consortium. School districts participating in the CADRE Project include Omaha, Millard, Papillion-LaVista and Westside.

The four-year-old program offers newly certified teachers an opportunity to spend their first year of teaching totally supported by their university program and by carefully selected teachers who become their mentors, known as CADRE associates. The new teachers begin graduate studies the summer before their teaching assignment and complete them the following summer, earning a Master of Science degree in education. Their tuition is paid, and they receive a $10,000 stipend for their internship teaching. The program recruits graduate students from all over the country.

The goal of the project is for the new teachers to have a good first year of teaching that includes a variety of professional learning experiences and speeds up their attainment of a "level of professional skill and judgment that characterizes a well-qualified teacher." The CADRE teachers benefit in many ways from guidance by mentors, classroom visits, discussions with colleagues, and seminars that address the concerns of first-year teachers. Their graduate course work emphasizes the issues found in classroom practice rather than abstract theory.

Each CADRE associate supervises two CADRE teachers (the CADRE group usually includes about 28 beginning teachers), an assignment that takes up about one-fourth of their time. Over the course of a one-year term, CADRE associates work with the CADRE teachers in a number of ways--conducting orientation, advising and observing, demonstrating teaching, and team teaching with the new teacher. Half of their time is spent at their district's discretion working on special projects or with task forces such as the prevention of youth violence. The remaining one-fourth of their time belongs to the university. They may teach undergraduate courses, supervise student teachers, participate in university sponsored research on the CADRE Project or provide in-service training for other teachers.

CADRE associates report that, for the first time since they began teaching, they have time to catch up on developments in teaching and renew their professional skills. Moreover, principals report that the CADRE associates have a beneficial effect on the total staff in their schools because of what they are learning and their contacts with the campus.

Most important, however, the CADRE teachers report that the mentoring and other opportunities offered by the program give them on-the-spot support and professional skills they would not have expected in their first year of teaching. Most of the CADRE teachers have been offered regular positions at the schools where they taught their first year.

Characteristics of Promising
Induction Programs for Beginning Teachers

• Special attention is given to teachers in the beginning years of their career in an effort to link their performance to high standards.
  
• Universities collaborate with schools to create clinical learning environments for beginning teachers. The relationship is seen as professional development for both teachers and faculty.
  
• Induction programs often take place in an extended fifth year of graduate study in which practice teaching is combined with seminars or course work designed around issues experienced in the classroom. (A number of other countries extend this help to more than the first year of teaching).
  
• Even if the purpose of the induction program is to satisfy licensure and certification requirements, it also provides assistance with everyday problems and encourages new teachers to be reflective about their work.
  
• Mentors for beginning teachers receive compensation and opportunities for their professional growth, such as becoming adjunct faculty at college campuses.

[Raising Licensing and Certification Standards ]

[Improving Professional Development Practices]