Features of Teacher Preparation Related to Three Different Perspectives on Graduates' Instructional Readiness

• In Event: Preservice Courses, Student Teaching Experiences, and Beginning Teacher Outcomes

Abstract

Objective and Perspective.. Teacher education programs face increasing pressure to provide evidence that they improve outcomes for graduates. Yet, only recently have scholars begun to conduct large-scale studies that link preparation to graduates’ workforce outcomes. Most prior studies depend upon graduates’ self-perceived readiness to teach (survey-based) or value-added to student achievement measures (VAMs) as outcomes. The former is prone to various forms of bias, while the latter makes inferences about teaching quality based upon student performance and is only available for teachers in tested subjects and grades. Our study uses graduates’ first-year observation ratings (based upon a school district’s evaluation rubric) as the focal outcome and is the first to link this outcome to various features of preparation across many programs. We also survey both preservice student teachers (PSTs) and the cooperating teachers (CTs) that mentored them, giving us two other measures of recent graduates’ readiness to teach.
We ask: What features of preparation predict how instructionally effective recent graduates are based upon (a) their first-year observation ratings, (b) their self-perceptions of readiness to teach, and (c) their CTs’ perceptions of their readiness to teach. Do the same features of preparation that predict one of these outcomes also predict the others? In addition, we test whether or not either of these survey-based measures predict first-year observation ratings.
Data and Methods. In 2014-15, we administered surveys to all PSTs and to all of their CTs across Chicago-area preparation programs to gather information on preparation features and perceptions of readiness to teach. We then linked these surveys to district administrative data, including first-year observation ratings. Our analytic sample includes 305 PSTs who student taught in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in 2014-15 and were subsequently hired in CPS in 2015-16 that can be linked to both (CT, PST) surveys and to observation ratings data. We applied Rasch methods to parallel PST and CT survey items to construct overall measures for PSTs’ and CTs’ perceptions of PSTs’ instructional readiness. We averaged observation scores to construct an overall district-perceived PST first-year effectiveness measure. We used hierarchical linear models to estimate first-year observation ratings (or survey-based readiness measures) as a function of features of preparation.
Results. We find that PSTs received stronger first-year observation ratings when their CTs had stronger observation ratings themselves, their CTs reported providing stronger coaching in specific instructional areas (including those targeted on the observation rubric), they gained employment in the same school where they had completed their student teaching, and when their placements had been in self-contained elementary classrooms. However, these same features were mostly unrelated to our two survey-based outcome measures. Finally, we found that CTs’ perceptions of PSTs’ readiness to teach positively predicted first-year observation ratings but PSTs’ self-perceived preparedness was unrelated.
Significance. Programs that are interested in improving first-year instructional effectiveness should consider recruiting CTs who are more instructionally effective and who report providing better quality coaching in specific instructional domains. Districts should also consider hiring candidates in the schools in which they completed their student teaching experiences.

Authors

• Kavita Kapadia Matsko, Northwestern University

• Matthew Ronfeldt, University of Michigan