Most beginning teachers now appear to be receiving induction services, but teachers overall are spending less time in some kinds of sustained professional development activities than just a few years ago, according to a new analysis of federal data.

Released this morning by the National Staff Development Council, a membership group supportive of school-based teacher training, the report was penned by three researchers at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. It is the second of a three-part research study on professional development.

The study draws on data from the 2000, 2004, and 2008 administrations of the federal Schools and Staffing Survey, a nationally representative data set. As of 2008, the scholars found that 78 percent of beginning teachers report having had a mentor, though not always in the teacher's content area. That's a big leap from 71 percent of teachers in 2004 and just 62 percent in 2000.

"We seem to have broken through and come to an understanding of the importance of induction," Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the report's authors, said in an interview.

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