Abstract
The Los Angeles Teacher Trainee program is designed to help recruit talented people into teaching; the Mentor Teacher component of that program is designed to help retain capable teachers by expanding their rewards and opportunities. Requirements of the Teacher Trainee Program intersect with the inducements of the Mentor Teacher Program to form a structure of support for beginning teachers. Mentor teachers are responsible for guiding and supporting new teachers who have had no previous professional preparation. This means helping novices learn to teach while teaching. How mentor teachers carry out their mentoring responsibilities has consequences for the kind of teachers trainees become and the sort of learning opportunities they extend to students. This report examines what Los Angeles (California) mentors are supposed to do according to the expectations of program officials; what mentors actually do based on their own testimony; researchers' observations of mentors' interactions with teacher trainees; and what teacher trainees say mentors do based on interviews with them across their 2 years in the program. Also considered is how this mentoring model adds up as preparation for and induction into teaching. (LL)