While raising standards for new teachers, policymakers have invested in programs to help new teachers survive and succeed in the classroom. As early as fall 2003, the state will require all newly credentialed teachers to participate in a two-year induction program.

Some school districts provide their own system to ease new teachers into the profession, and the state funds an induction program called the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program.

This program is designed to support fully credentialed teachers. However, in 2000–01, the most recent year of data, BTSA reached only about six in 10 fully credentialed teachers in their first or second year of teaching. This is an increase over the previous year but shows the program has a considerable way to go.

In past years, BTSA also provided induction support for new teachers who did not yet have credentials. About 20 percent of BTSA participants in 2000–01 did not hold full credentials, and that number is likely to decrease as these teachers are placed in intern or preintern programs rather than in BTSA.

The intern and preintern programs help underprepared teachers obtain credentials, but they do not necessarily provide all of the assistance that fledgling teachers need to succeed in the classroom. And given the design of the BTSA program, it may not be a good fit for preinterns and interns who do not have a credential.

The BTSA program currently costs about $85 million a year. Although the California Department of Education has the authority to shift funds to meet the need for growth in the program, the current budget shortfall may preclude providing the dollars necessary.