This document provides an introduction to the New Teacher Initiative (NTI), a special effort of the National Writing Project, aimed at learning how Writing Project sites can best support the large numbers of new teachers now populating U.S. schools. The specific purpose of the initiative is to help the National Writing Project (NWP) learn how to design and carry out programs that support, with content-specific professional development, novice teachers in urban, high-need schools. The most immediate aim of the NTI is to explore multiple professional development approaches and strategies for supporting new teachers. A broader goal is to capture the lessons learned from 18 New Teacher Initiative sites and to disseminate information both internally to the NWP network and to other external audiences. The New Teacher Initiative is designed as a large-scale action research project, intended both to serve new teachers at the designated sites, and to generate knowledge for the National Writing Project and the field at large. The overview was written with the assistance of Dawn Huntwork, Ellen Meyer, and Mark St. John. (Contains 7 footnotes and 1 figure.) [For associated reports, see ED500546, ED500549, and ED500550.]