Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of "alternative approaches" to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the…

In this article, the authors describe a case in which school district officials used state regulations for new teacher mentoring programs as justification to cut funding and incrementally dismantle a model program. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper describes five maxims for an effective faculty mentoring program developed at Western Carolina University (North Carolina) designed to increase retention of new faculty. The first maxim, "ask what the program will do for the school," emphasizes that a program should not be undertaken until this question has been specifically…

This paper describes a faculty development and orientation program for new faculty at Montclair State University in New Jersey. The New Faculty Program (NFP) is designed to orient and introduce a diverse new faculty (more than half of whom are women and minorities) to the culture of the university, and to help them attain reappointment and tenure…

Cooperative research was used in revising and strengthening core courses in a teacher education program. Feedback was used to provide suggestions for more appropriate and relevant knowledge to be presented at the preservice level. In the course of initial research first-year teachers were asked to help identify areas in their teacher education…

A report on implementation of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking (McRAT) Program in Arkansas from 1989-92 chronicles the program's development, operation, and results. McRAT is a staff development program designed to help teachers infuse higher order thinking processes and multicultural concepts into regular classroom curricula (grades 3 to…

This case study describes an effort to design and pilot an interactive, Web-based, district-wide "professional support portal" to support new teacher retention and professional growth in the Milwaukee Public Schools. The study reviews the overarching goals of this program and focuses, in particular, on an account of the nature and kinds…