A State Program for the Initial Years of Teaching

The reasons for the widespread attention to programs designed to increase the effectiveness of new teachers include perceived weaknesses of preservice teacher education programs, lack of attention to distinctions between novice and experienced teachers, school and classroom assignments typically given to new teachers, absent or weak relationships between higher education and elementary and secondary schools, beliefs that teacher behavior contributes to declines in pupil outcomes, and others. Proposing solutions to these problems is seen as appropriate for state policymakers. A major policy-into-practice dilemma is how to use state-level initiatives to intervene effectively in a human activity as complex as teaching. This complexity and an understanding of selected issues faced by new teachers form the basis for a set of recommendations about how a state program for the initial years of teaching can be formulated. The recommendations focus on initiating new teachers into a profession, as opposed to socializing them into an occupation.