Developing beginning teachers' professional capabilities in the workplace: An investigation of one California county's induction program using the success case method

The need to retain beginning teachers in the profession, the workplace challenges confronting beginning teachers and contributing to teacher turnover, and the desire to provide high quality teachers for all students are problems given much attention in current research literature. As a result, many states have developed induction programs to ease the transition of beginning teachers into their professional roles and to strengthen their competence. While studies have shown the value of induction programs in improving the retention of beginning teachers, fewer studies have examined the effects of induction on teachers' practice. Moreover, many studies of induction programs report average program effects and do not take into consideration their complexities and the varied degrees of success they may have for individual teachers working in a variety of school environments.; This study investigated one California county's induction program, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA), to examine the experiences in the program and their professional practice after the program. An adaptation of the Success Case Method of program evaluation (Brinkerhoff, 2003) was used to structure the inquiry. Eight teachers for whom the program had been more and less successful were identified and interviewed to elicit feedback on ways the program had helped shape their current teaching practices and the school environment characteristics which supported or constrained these practices.; Teachers from the high and medium success groups credited the program with helping them develop teaching capabilities around standards-based practice which they were continuing to apply. Moreover, for the high success cases, certain critical teaching practices attendant to these capabilities were being established as normative behaviors. The teachers cited few workplace characteristics constraining their effectiveness; the majority were found to be working in supportive school environments.; It was concluded that an approach to evaluation incorporating the strategic selection of particular cases for more intensive study would be a valuable addition to program leaders' portfolios of evaluation methods and could be applied to investigate other components of induction programs, such as the work of individual support providers and the role of administrators in supporting beginning teachers.