Report spotlights new high school and middle school teachers

Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ) today released research indicating that new high school and middle school teachers, challenged by their teenaged students, are much more concerned about administrative support, more frustrated by student motivation and behavior, less likely to see teaching as a lifelong career choice, and less likely to believe that all students can achieve in school than new teachers in elementary schools.

The series, "Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Term Plans," is based on a nationwide survey of first-year teachers and aims to help leaders in education and government understand more about the quality of current teacher education and on-the-job support and mentoring for new teachers. "Issue No. 1: The Special Challenges of New Teachers in High Schools and Middle Schools" provides ample evidence that new teachers in middle and high school feel most vulnerable to challenging teaching conditions.

The full report and complete questionnaire are available online at the following page on the Public Agenda website.

The research will be discussed on a live webcast organized by NCCTQ on Thursday, October 11, 2007, from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Registration and more information about the Web discussion is available at this link.