The rapid turnover of novice teachers is a stubborn challenge plaguing schools across the country. The field has come to some consensus about key elements of effective novice teacher support that have potential to ameliorate this problem, although this knowledge has been applied in an inconsistent fashion. Beginning teacher support is a complex…

This article identifies the social, political, and educational influences that have contributed to the popularity of formal teacher induction and mentor programs, noting advantages and disadvantages and offering support for an alternative approach to induction grounded in the conception of teaching as a moral, political, and intellectual…

Identifies issues that need to be addressed in developing effective teacher induction and mentor programs, including providing beginning teachers with reduced teaching loads, multiple opportunities to teach the same content, support from peers and experienced colleagues, and formative evaluation that differs from the summative evaluation of…

Describes a two-year, collaborative, university-school district teacher induction program in which beginning teachers' classroom performance was assessed using a behavioral observation instrument. Participants made significant gains, with first-year gains resulting from improvements in classroom organization and second-year gains related to…