The Napa County BTSA program serves a consortium of all five districts in Napa County (the area is suburban and has no large urban schools). Guided by the Napa County Office of Education, the consortium collaborates with three area universities. Because the program is relatively small, with approximately 60 beginning teachers and 40 support providers in 2002-03, the Napa BTSA has a simple organizational structure that consists of a quarter-time director and a quarter-time associate director, both of whom are funded by the districts. In addition, a full-time new-teacher support specialist works half time for BTSA. The work of the project is overseen by a task force representative of constituents and meets monthly. The Napa County BTSA training cadre conducts training for support providers. The cadre consists of four formative assessment trainers, three administrative trainers, and three diversity trainers. Additional workshops on instructional skills for new teachers are supported by the project.

Susan Wight, director of the Napa Valley BTSA, reports that "this design has withstood the test of time and continues to retain teachers in the profession and operate smoothly in this, its fourth year." Indeed, last year, 32 first-year teachers participated in the program. Of those, 29 are still teaching, two left to stay at home with their children, and one changed professions. Of the 27 second-year participating teachers, 23 are still teaching, three are on maternity leave, and one was not rehired.

BTSA is voluntary in Napa except for teachers whose particular credentials require participation (which so far only has applied to out-of-state experienced credential holders). All high school teachers in the Napa program participated voluntarily. The program provides regular teacher-coach visits for each beginning teacher and supports new teachers through demonstration lessons, curriculum, goal-setting assistance, and peer coaching.

The Napa Valley Unified School District human resources director of personnel and the Napa County Office of Education staff development coordinator co-plan and facilitate new-teacher workshops, projects, and coaching efforts. Each of the 26 schools in the district has at least one mentor teacher whose primary responsibility is new-teacher support. Napa Valley also has a strategic plan that targets instructional strategies, problem-solving of instructional as well as leadership concerns, and curriculum implementation at the school level.

Long-range plans include onsite coaching to assist with implementation of skills learned in the training and a pilot instructional leadership intern program, whereby a teacher leader from each site is given a stipend and release time to facilitate strong instructional leadership and consensus building on instructional goals and to develop an organization capacity for instructional problem-solving).

Source: Information was culled from telephone conversations and email between Susan
Wight, Napa Valley BTSA director, and Brenda Maddox-Dolan, Alliance
for Excellent Education, October 11-19, 2002. Additional information
available online at http://www.nvusd.k12.ca.us/.