Strong Beginnings Induction

Quest Professional Develoment

Strong Beginnings Induction

Strong Beginnings is an induction program designed by the Educational Issues Department of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) Health and Welfare Fund. The program emphasizes classroom management, student discipline and effective teaching practices. The goal of Strong Beginnings is to provide a superior professional development opportunity that will ultimately help retain committed and effective teachers in Philadelphia Public Schools. In addition, the program enables new and veteran teachers the opportunity to obtain induction credits, a mandatory criterion for Level II Teaching Certification.

Teacher Induction “Strong Beginnings” was specifically designed using documented research to address the needs of Philadelphia Public school teachers. What differentiates this program from other induction programs is its emphasis on critical beginning-of-the-year issues including: Classroom Management, Student Discipline, Effective Teaching Practices and Collaborating with Students and Parents. It also offers yearlong support for teachers. In addition to five days of face-to-face induction sessions, teachers are required to implement what they learned and complete 25 Reflection on Research Concepts during the school year. If teachers need help applying what they’ve learned, they can reach out to Educational Issues Professional Development Leaders for guidance.

The Educational Issues Department ran a successful “Strong Beginnings” pilot program in 2001 at Temple University. In 2008, former superintendent Arlene Ackerman visited the program citing its merits, and identified the need for a stronger induction program in the District to help retain teachers. The School District of Philadelphia adopted “Strong Beginnings” in 2009. The Educational Issues Department now runs summer induction for the School District of Philadelphia.

Participants attend five days of face-to-face professional development during the summer months. The summer instructional sessions presents the latest research available along with proven best practices. Participants are exposed to strategies that are demonstrated with an emphasis on interactive instruction and instructor modeling. Each participant then utilizes their current classroom population to focus on the strategies presented in the program. Participants reflect on 25 research concepts and submit with an artifact that demonstrates integration of the concept into classroom instruction. There are three or four concepts submitted each month from September to March.

The evaluation process is set up so that each reflection is reviewed by three evaluators, to provide inter-rater reliability. The evaluators access the reflections from participants they have instructed, and then the reflection is evaluated by an additional instructor. The electronic submission process begins with each participant receiving a username and a password to log into the system. After successful login is accomplished each participant is presented with the three reflection questions. Each page contains the participant’s name, the name of the concept being reflected upon, three questions, and a link to upload a supporting artifact. The participant completes the reflection questions that ask:

  1. How did you apply the strategy; what did you change in your practice to implement; with whom did you try the strategy?
  2. Now that you have had a chance to apply the strategy comment on how well it worked; if it worked, what change did you notice; did what you want to happen, happen?
  3. What if anything will you do differently in the future to apply the strategy?

The turnaround time for participant evaluations is three weeks. Reflections submitted at the end of one month are evaluated before the next set of reflections are submitted. Upon a successful completion rate of 80%, the participant receives two (2) Induction credits to enable them to upgrade their Level 1 Certificate to Level II Certificate status or Act 48 hours.

Induction Timeline

  • February 1, 2017 – June 30, 2017: Registration is open to all educators for the 2017 Strong Beginnings Induction Program
  • April 1, 2017 – April 30, 2017: Participants resubmit reflections that did not pass
  • Week of May 8, 2017: Send School District of Philadelphia an initial list of participants who passed Induction
  • Week of May 26, 2017: Send list of additional participants who passed Induction
  • July 24, 2017 – July 28, 2017: Strong beginnings Induction program
  • September 2017 – March 2018: Participants submit 25 reflections on research concepts and artifacts (see attached tracking template for due dates)
  • Website will close on

Year to Date: We have provided induction for 1136 participants

Induction Participants

  • 2009: 439 Participants
  • 2010: 234 Participants
  • 2011: 118 Participants
  • 2012: 176 Participants
  • 2013: 92 Participants
  • 2014: 77 Participants
  • 2015: 147 Participants

Reflection On Research Concepts

  1. Rules
  2. Procedures
  3. Relationship Strategies
  4. Parameter Strategies
  5. Monitoring Strategies
  6. Consequences
  7. With-it-ness
  8. Overlapping
  9. Momentum
  10. Variety
  11. Group Management (Avoiding Station)
  12. Indetifying Similarities Adn Differences
  13. Summarizing
  14. Notetaking
  15. Reinforcing Effort
  16. Providing Recognition
  17. Homework
  18. Practice
  19. Nonlinguistic Representation
  20. Setting Objectives
  21. Providing Feedback
  22. Enerationg And Testing Hypothesis
  23. Cues
  24. Quesions
  25. Advance Organizers

Strong Beginnings

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