TAPP teachers finishing first year in schools

ATLANTA - About 750 people are finishing up their first year in the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program. The state began the program last spring to address a severe teacher shortage. <br> <br> State officials haven&#39;t compiled statistics on Georgia TAPP&#39;s first year. But a check of eleven school systems in metro Atlanta and five other large Georgia districts showed most of the teachers finished the year. <br> <br> The 16 districts hired 433 TAPP teachers for the 2001-2002 school year. Of those, 29 - less than seven percent - left before the end of the year. <br> <br> The state doesn&#39;t keep comparable statistics on Georgia teachers who have gone through regular training programs. But 15 percent of all newly hired teachers in 2000 did NOT return for a second year in 2001. <br> <br> School officials say they expect most of the TAPP teachers to return next school year. <br> <br> Last year, TAPP teachers attended a brief summer session where they learned survival skills, such as lesson planning, before jumping straight into the classroom.