A primary goal of teacher education programs is to equip teacher candidates with the necessary skills to navigate the social and cultural realities and complexities of the classroom while seamlessly integrating theory and practice. As our classrooms become more socially, economically, and culturally diverse it is important for teachers to evolve…

Early career special educators must be engaged in conversations with developers of preservice teacher preparation programs to co-construct initial teacher education programs which meet their needs. The process of listening to the teachers themselves could serve to ensure that teachers are an explicit element of program design. This article…

State-level policy support for teacher induction programs can help teachers realize their full potential, keep them in the profession, promote greater student learning, and save money. Higher education institutions and school districts must work together to provide high-quality and well-designed induction programs. This issue of "Policy Matters,"…

Development and implementation processes of the Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) program, a teacher evaluation and support system in Connecticut, are described. Purposes of the BEST teacher induction program include facilitating the acquisition of effective teaching behaviors, supporting new teachers, and developing veteran teachers'…

When Prince George's County Public Schools created a teacher mentor program, administrators also created a system for evaluating it with clear expectations and goals at the outset. Precisely defining objectives enabled leaders to see their progress, determine what needed to change along the way, and build support for the program.

In conjunction with a national study on the induction process for beginning vocational teachers, researchers developed a general conceptual framework for the classification and analysis of teacher-related phenomena. The framework, called the Teacher Proximity Continuum, has proved useful in analysis of negative influences, positive influences,…