New York City is trading in its three-year-old teacher induction program for one which permits schools to grow their own. On the plus side of this move, the change gives more say to principals. On the minus side, the change gives more say to principals, and in the process provides fewer guarantees to teachers that the induction will be any good. Gone will be a cadre of mentors trained by the induction provider par excellence and California export, the New Teacher Center.

Under the new program, principals will choose mentors the old fashioned way--from their existing staffs. That change is likely to impact both the quality of the mentors--selected from a much smaller pool than a citywide program--and the quantity of time mentors spend in the classroom--given that classroom teachers in high poverty schools usually aren't sitting around on their thumbs looking for something to keep themselves busy.

Both the school district and the New Teacher Center acknowledged that the old mentoring program was not perfect: the mentors had larger caseloads than the New Teacher Center recommends, the program did not work with second-year teachers or experienced teachers who were new to the district, and in some cases, the mentors did not see eye-to-eye with principals. Nevertheless, the program, which was almost a $100 million investment, received high marks from participating teachers and is credited with reducing teacher turnover among beginning teachers. In the two years of the program, teachers who left after their first year of teaching dropped from 9.4 percent to 6.6 percent.