Known as the Cincinnati Initiative for Teacher Education, the program has won praise from teacher education reformers who seek to make the teacher-training process more like the clinical training that doctors receive. Graduates of extended preparation programs, according to the report, are rated as more effective by principals and teaching colleagues and are more likely to enter and stay in the profession. The program graduated its first class of 75 students last year. Graduates also earn some credits toward a master's degree. At the professional-practice schools, veteran teachers and interns are organized into teams.
Interns receive guidance from a mentor-teacher as well as other teachers on the team.
Each team also has a lead teacher, who is released from most teaching duties. Because of a unique arrangement with the district and the teachers' union, the interns are paid as part of the teaching staff. They each teach half of a regular courseload, in slots created by existing vacancies and from the slot vacated by the team's lead teacher. Depending on the availability of funds, the district pays the interns as much as half but no less than one-fourth of a beginning teacher's salary. The union's participation was a critical element in making the program large-scale, said Tom Mooney, the president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.