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Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality today released research that raises questions about the support given to new teachers who come to teaching through alternate routes - new teachers who are often placed in the most troubled schools.

A comment from one first-year teacher illustrates the isolation that many of these 'alt-route' teachers feel, "Teachers have to go it alone, especially in the city.

The second report of the "Lessons Learned" series, "Issue No. 2: Working Without a Net" focuses on new teachers in high-needs schools and compares the perspectives of those coming to the profession through traditional teacher education versus those from three alternate-route programs: Teach for America, Troops to Teachers and The New Teacher Project.

"Based on this survey, our question is: Are we willing to create a system that gives new teachers the support that will help them succeed regardless of the route they take to teaching?

School leaders need to make supporting this new generation of teachers a priority, no matter where these teachers teach and what route they took to the classroom.

Steve Cantrell, Director of REL-Midwest, who provided guidance on the design and analysis said "The perfect recipe for increasing the achievement gap is to assign those students with the greatest needs to those teachers least equipped to address these needs.

According to the survey, the alternate route teachers from these three programs are especially motivated by the desire to help disadvantaged children but at the same time more disheartened by the conditions they find in their classrooms.

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