Are new teachers receiving enough support in the classroom? Ontario’s New Teacher Induction Program plans to prepare new teachers for success from the start of their careers.

In a May 2003 news release, the Ontario College of Teachers reported that a large majority of new teachers were not receiving the professional support that they required. It also stated that “more than half of new teachers are hired after school starts in September, one in five are asked to teach subjects they haven’t been trained to teach, and almost one in five is at risk of leaving teaching altogether early in their career.” Their findings made it clear that new teachers in Ontario were in need of help.

A solution was created by the Working Table on Teacher Development and adopted by the Ministry of Education called the “New Teacher Induction Program” (NTIP); a mandatory two-year support program for every new teacher hired during the 2005-2006 school year.

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The NTIP is for “new” teachers (defined by the Ministry as all permanent teachers (full-time or part-time) or teachers who’ve not yet completed the NTIP and/or who’ve been hired longer than 24 months) and includes components titled Resources, Teacher Orientation, and Mentoring.

The goals of the NTIP, as outlined by the Ministry, include that teachers will have:

  • Orientated themselves to the Ontario curriculum and context, and to their specific board and school;
  • Improved skills and confidence through participation in a mentoring relationship;
  • Progressed along the continuum of professional development and training
  • Proven successful teaching in an Ontario publicly funded school board;
  • Demonstrated of a subset of 8 competencies (O. Reg. 99/02 amended)

While in theory, the program planned to meet the support needs of new teachers; in practice, it is still experiencing growing pains.

Professionally Speaking reported in the December 2006 issue that English Public School Boards were the most likely to be actively participating in the NTIP with 66% of new teachers involved, and that the lowest percentages of participants worked for Independent or Private School Boards. Also, new teachers located in the Greater Toronto Area were 49% more likely to be receiving formal support than were the 42% of new teachers located in Northern Ontario. The article identified a teacher from the Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) (located in Sudbury, ON) as “one of the fortunate minority who has the advantage of a mentor”. The RDSB is included in the lowest ranking percentile of teachers receiving formal support, yet its dedication to the NTIP makes it an example of the continued efforts by professionals to deliver quality training to new teachers.

While the NTIP continues to develop, teachers rely on the more informal professional learning communities that exist within their own schools. Despite inconsistent reports on the usefulness and delivery of the NTIP, new teachers continue to learn while on the job and in the classroom with hopes that the issue of teacher support continues to be improved province-wide.