Enter the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), whose Northern California & Hawaii and Southern California regions are tackling the problem head-on.

ACSI assembled consortia of school administrators and teachers to develop their own induction plans. During the course of the project the Northern California consortium began to explore means of accelerating and simplifying the process. The program they have produced may well serve as a model for private schools throughout the state.

ACSI negotiated an arrangement with the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) that enables teachers employed by ACSI-affiliated schools (from Fresno to the Oregon border) to participate in an induction program provided by SCOE. The program is available to new teachers and those from out-of-state with fewer than five years of teaching experience. Its centerpiece is the California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFAAST), which is common to most of the state's teacher induction programs. ACSI member schools pay SCOE a fee of $1,742 for each participating teacher, per-year, for the two years of the program. The fee is equal to one-half the payment furnished by public school districts in support of participating public school teachers. The other half of the fee, which typically is paid by the state in support of public school teachers, is waived.