Designing a Comprehensive Data System on Teacher Preparation in the U.S.—An NRC Workshop Project Report

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Currently, very little information about the teacher preparation process is available that is useful for research, evaluation, administration, or policy. The lack of adequate data about teacher preparation is a serious omission in the nation’s educational data infrastructure at a time when there is heightened state and national concern about the effectiveness of teachers and their preparation. Improved data about the teacher preparation process could help bring about a substantial improvement in teacher effectiveness by detailing the program components that need to be measured by practitioners, studied by researchers, and tracked by policymakers. For this session, panelists will lay out a vision for what a teacher preparation data system might look like; discuss the types of questions that such a system might answer and the kinds of data needed to answer them; highlight some of the complexities associated with collecting the data and how they might be addressed; and conclude with a plan for how the field might move forward in designing the needed data system.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Cosponsor

• Organization of Institutional Affiliates

Chairs

• Judith A. Koenig, National Research Council

• Natalie R. Nielsen, National Research Council

Participants

• Emerson J. Elliott, Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation

• Pamela L. Grossman, Stanford University

• Suzanne M. Wilson, University of Connecticut

• Brian P. Rowan, University of Michigan

• Robert E. Floden, Michigan State University

Discussant

• David H. Monk, The Pennsylvania State University