Tackling Teacher Recruitment and Preparation Challenges: The Effectiveness of Teaching Fellows in North Carolina Schools

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Investigations of Teacher Education Program Design and Innovations

Abstract

In order to produce a highly effective teacher workforce many states are investigating promising practices for teacher recruitment and preparation. One such example is the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, designed to recruit academically competitive and diverse individuals into teacher education programs and provide innovative preparation experiences to benefit teacher quality. Our goal was to evaluate Teaching Fellows’ effectiveness, to determine whether selection or preparation explained our findings, and to examine Teaching Fellows’ commitment to the state’s public schools. We found that Teaching Fellows were less likely to exit the profession and more effective at raising student achievement, however, this finding was attributable to selection, not unique programmatic experiences. Overall, these results portend several conclusions for improving teacher quality.

Authors

• Kevin Christopher Bastian, University of North Carolina

• Gary Henry, Vanderbilt University

• Adrienne A. Smith, Horizon Research