Although there is some agreement in the field of education as to what constitutes a mentor and the roles and responsibilities of a mentor, mentoring programs vary drastically across states and across schools with respect to the amount of structure and the resources available to implement these programs. Too often, mentoring programs take on a "sink or swim" mentality with teachers not feeling the support that they need during the first several years of teaching due to a poorly implemented mentoring program. In other mentoring programs, beginning teachers feel very supported; however, these beginning teachers are left to fend for themselves when the mentoring program concludes after the first two or three years (Barnes-Ryan; Feiman-Nemser). Instead of thinking about teacher development as a series of discrete stages, mentors in schools and universities might re-conceptualize the process as a continuum, with the faculty involved in the preparation continuing a partnership to support the development of beginners in the schools.