Teacher Induction Program Standards
NTC’s Teacher Induction Program Standards (TIPS) build upon and are informed by those many years of study, consultation, collaboration, and program implementation across many contexts throughout the United States and abroad.
The TIPS are designed to provide program leaders, policymakers, and researchers with an aspirational framework for program design, implementation, and evaluation. The following key understandings provide the foundational bedrock for these program standards:
- the first two to three years of a teacher’s career (induction) is an important and unique phase of teacher development;
- an induction program should be part of a larger system of teacher development, support, accountability, and evaluation;
- well-qualified, carefully selected, extensively trained, and mentors with continuing access to ongoing professional learning are as important to a new teacher’s success as similarly supported classroom teachers are to the success of their students;
- effective induction programs are focused on teaching practice and student learning;
- processes of formative assessment guide the work of the mentor along with the development of the new teacher;
- intentional, strategic alignments and redundancies build capacity and strengthen program implementation; and
- a focus on equity and universal access to a quality education characterized by high expectations and meaningful, challenging content are non-negotiable.
TIPS are intended for use across a wide variety of program contexts, including consortia, small and large school districts, Pre-K–17 partnerships, and charter schools. The standards are carefully framed to support maximum impact on teaching and learning, regardless of context.