NCTAF/GSU Induction Project

NCTAF/Georgia State University Induction Project

Sponsored by the Wachovia Foundation

The NCTAF/Georgia State University Induction Project has been designed to provide support to beginning teachers serving in low-income and high-minority schools in four districts in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The project’s goal is to improve student achievement in the Atlanta area by enhancing the quality of new teachers entering high-need schools and by increasing the likelihood that they will stay in their teaching assignments and become skilled teachers.

The project partners are the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), Georgia State University (GSU), the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG), the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP), and four Atlanta-area school districts (Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County Schools, Fulton County Schools, and Gwinnett County Schools).

To view a recent presentation on this project, click here.

PROJECT DESIGN

The project is designed around the Georgia Framework for Teaching, now adopted as the state’s definition of quality teaching by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, the Georgia Department of Education, and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. The Framework defines the knowledge, skills, and other attributes of accomplished teaching in six areas:

1. content and curriculum;
2. knowledge of students;
3. classroom environments;
4. assessment;
5. planning and instruction; and
6. professionalism. 

The Framework is introduced to teacher candidates during their preparation program. It can be used by experienced teachers and faculty to observe and support beginning teachers, and by all teachers to self-assess their growth as professionals. The partners in this project are developing and testing three resources, aligned with the Georgia Framework, to ascertain their usefulness in supporting new teachers as they grow from novices to experienced career professionals. These resources are described below.

• Cross-Career Learning Communities (CCLCs).  CCLCs will provide both face-to-face and online support and dialogue for pre-service, new, and experienced/mentor teachers, as well as university faculty supervisors. In this project, CCLC members will utilize the Critical Friends Group model (developed by the National School Reform Faculty) to support the new teachers and to grow in the knowledge and skills identified by the Georgia Framework for Teaching. In June 2006, the first cohort of 30 CCLC coaches (experienced teachers) will be trained on the protocol developed for Critical Friends Groups.

• The BRIDGE.  Building Resources: Induction and Development for Georgia Educators (BRIDGE) is a peer-reviewed and interactive online resource and mentoring site for teachers. Participants will find peer-reviewed lessons, articles, and websites submitted by teachers in response to other teachers’ questions about knowledge and skills identified in the Framework. BRIDGE online learning communities are being developed and tested and will offer online meeting “space” for Cross-Career Learning Communities in 2006-07.

• Professional Growth Continuum and Checklist.  This observation and self-assessment tool, scheduled for completion in summer 2006, will provide a process for pre-service and beginning teachers to reflect on their knowledge and skills in order to continuously grow as professional educators. It will allow university faculty, cooperating teachers, new teachers, and their mentors to document evidence of professional growth as well as areas where additional improvements can be made, based on knowledge and skills identified in the Georgia Framework.