Beginning Teacher Induction: What the Data Tell Us

Induction support programs for beginning teachers is an education reform whose time has come. The national data indicate that over the past couple of decades the number of beginning teachers has ballooned in the U.S. Simultaneously, there has been a large increase in the number of states, districts, and schools offering induction programs. Importantly, the data also indicate that induction can help retain teachers, improve their instruction and their students’ achievement. However, the data also tell us that the kinds and amounts of support greatly vary, and research suggests the effects depend on how much induction one gets and for how long Disciplines Education Comments Ingersoll, R. (2012) Beginning Teacher Induction: What the Data Tell Us. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(8), 47-51. http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/93/8/47 Posted with permission of Phi Delta Kappa International, www.pdkintl.org. All rights reserved. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/234 Comments? Like PDK at www. facebook.com/pdkintl S ince the advent of public schools, education commentators and reformers have perennially called attention to the challenges encountered by newcomers to school teaching. Although elementary and secondary teaching involves intensive interaction with youngsters, the work of teachers is done largely in isolation from colleagues. This isolation can be especially diffi cult for newcomers, who, upon accepting a position in a school, are frequently left to succeed or fail on their own within the confi nes of their classrooms — often likened to a “lost at sea” or “sink or swim” experience. Other commentators go further, arguing that beginners tend to end up in the most challenging and diffi cult classroom and school assignments, akin to a “trial by fi re.” Indeed, some have assailed teaching as an occupation that “cannibalizes its young.” These are the very kinds of issues and problems that effective employee entry, orientation, and support programs — widely known as induction — seek to address. Teaching, however, has traditionally not had the kind of induction programs for new entrants common to many skilled blueand white-collar occupations and characteristic of many traditional professions. This has changed in recent decades; induction for beginning teachers has become a major topic in education policy and reform. The theory behind such programs holds that teaching is complex work, that preemployment teacher preparation is rarely suffi cient to provide all the knowledge and skill necessary to successful teaching, and that a signifi cant portion of this knowledge can be acquired only on the job. This view holds that schools must provide an environment where novices can learn how to teach, survive, and succeed as teachers. These programs aim to improve the performance and retention of new hires and to enhance the skills and prevent the loss of new teachers with the ultimate goal of improving student growth and learning. While teacher induction has received much attention in the policy realm, until recently, empirical research on these reforms has been limited. It has been unclear how widespread induction programs are across the nation, what activities, supports, and components the induction experience usually includes, and, most importantly, whether receiving such support has any positive effect on teachers and students. All of this poses Beginning teacher induction WHAT THE DATA TELL US Induction is an education reform whose time has come. By Richard M. Ingersoll RICHARD M. INGERSOLL (rmi@gse.upenn.edu) is a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania,