The Joseph Klingenstein Summer Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University (New York), was established in 1982 for 50 beginning independent school teachers who demonstrated outstanding potential. The Institute's purpose is to increase teaching effectiveness and to encourage career commitment. The three weeks of the Institute introduce teachers to the complexity and challenge of the teaching act with a range of topics representative of the many factors characterizing the role of the secondary school teacher. To ascertain what impact the Institute might be having on the participants and their schools, questionnaires were mailed in December 1983 to the 98 teachers who had attended the Institute over the previous 2 summers and to the heads of their schools. Ninety-three percent of the school heads and 82 percent of the teachers completed and returned the questionnaires. There was remarkable convergence among the four sets of responses. Three major changes that resulted from the experience were teachers' increased confidence, competence, and commitment. The survey indicates that the experience of being exposed to professional knowledge and a supportive network of peers was overwhelmingly positive for this self-selected group of able teachers, most of whom lacked any previous professional training. (Author/JD)