While new teacher mentoring has traditionally focused on socio-emotional support and professional socialization, understanding mentors' role in developing novices' content teaching is needed given new educational reforms. Few researchers have explored a knowledge/practice base for content-focused mentoring. Therefore, we ask: what do content…

For the past decade, students at California State University (CSU) campuses increasingly lack basic mathematics skills. To address this concern, Executive Order No. 665 (1998) called for CSU campuses to bring students to proficiency in mathematics. School districts have struggled to modify their mathematics curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in…

Learning how to teach depends on the dynamic inter-relationships among many parts and people; however, research on learning how to teach has typically focused on confined aspects of teacher education (e.g., a specific methods course) over short periods of time (such as one semester). In response, Wideen, Mayer-Smith, and Moon (1998), in their…

America's urban public schools and their students are in dire need of a durable and committed corps of teachers, teachers who are willing to stay in education long enough to make a difference in the conditions of those schools, and most importantly, in student achievement. Many traditional teacher education programs critique alternative programs…

This article examines the relationship between the mathematical knowledge of 438 K-8 California teachers and the demographics of the schools in which they work. To measure mathematical knowledge, we used a series of multiple-choice problems meant to represent both the content teachers teach and the specialized knowledge of mathematics that…

This document presents standards for professional teaching practice in California. The standards were developed to facilitate the induction of beginning teachers into their professional roles and responsibilities. The standards are organized around six interrelated categories of teaching practice: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning;…