High rates of teacher attrition, particularly among those within their first years of teaching, have prompted studies aimed at identifying issues and recommendations for analyzing and improving teacher preparation programs. This study used a mixed methodology to investigate effectiveness of teacher preparation programs as perceived by first year teachers. Preliminary focus groups were formed to promote conversation and identify perceived strengths and weaknesses of preparation programs. Feedback from the focus groups combined with topics from extant literature resulted in a survey instrument that was administered to novice teachers as they completed their preparation/certification programs and began their first year of teaching. Likert scale questions and open-ended responses were included in the study instrument.

The participants in the study consisted of 147 novice teachers who responded to the survey questionnaire. Participants represented graduates from traditional and non-traditional teacher preparation programs; including public university-based, private university-based, teacher-in-residence, and alternative licensure programs.

Results indicate that gender constituted a significant variable in all tests conducted. Ethnicity and the level of participants' education did not have significant relationships to survey results in correlational analyses, but did have statistically significant levels in ANOVA tests. Integral to the ethnicity analyses, however, are the comparative numbers of respondents. Correlational analysis testing the number of hours of classroom experience novice teachers had compiled relative to survey item analyses showed a significant relationship between these variables, indicating that the more time respondents had worked in classrooms, the higher their perceived levels of program effectiveness. In all tests, level of household income did not show a statistically significant relationship to survey response analyses.

Further analyses from this study indicate that, although there are components or foci of teacher preparation programs that are perceived by many study participants as being strong, there are also areas needing alignment and emphasis. Some of these areas include the ability to deal with work-related stress; differentiation of instruction based on students' ability, economic, linguistic or cultural diversity; classroom management effectiveness; and ability to teach required content with confidence and effectiveness.