You know where you need to be and what you have to work on. The portfolio project is the culminating activity of the two-year assessment and support program for new teachers. In the first year of BEST, beginning teachers meet periodically with an assigned mentor teacher and attend seminars and workshops throughout the year. The BEST program is among the most rigorous in the country, according to Michael Pons, a spokesman for the National Education Association , the nation's largest teachers union. It's important to have a process to make sure people have the knowledge and the skills to be teachers.
Most states just focus on the knowledge.
It's good to know sooner rather than later if a person is going to do a good job. Michael Allen, project manager for the Education Commission of the States , which monitors education policies, agrees. The information we have is that it is very effective. Earlier this year, ECS presented an award to the BEST program, citing it as innovative. Catherine Fisk, coordinator of the policy and research unit in the education department's Bureau of Program and Teacher Evaluations, said Connecticut is sharing its knowledge.