Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs: A Consensus Report From the National Academy of Education

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

A recently released National Academy of Education (NAEd) consensus report, Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs, addresses the crucial role of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) to recruit, prepare, and retain a qualified and diverse teacher workforce, generating a supply of teachers that is responsive to demand to ensure all students are taught by well-prepared, culturally responsive teachers. This is especially important in a time when too many students, especially those from historically marginalized communities, do not have equitable access to qualified, well-prepared teachers, and as we are witnessing teacher shortages, high teacher attrition rates, wage penalties, and difficult working conditions. Given the larger educational context in which TPPs are positioned, this report provides recommendations for TPP evaluations and improvements as well as broader reforms to the educational system necessary to support equitable access to high quality teacher preparation for prospective teachers.

The conceptual framework and a logic model in the report address the interconnectedness between the role of TPPs to both recruit and prepare teachers and evaluate and improve program quality as well as the larger policy and contextual supports necessary to ensure that the nation meets the critical goal of preparing high quality teacher educators. The report then sets forth the current landscape of teacher preparation evaluation and examines the complexity, nuance, and interrelatedness of the three goals of TPP evaluations (i.e., program improvement, consumer information, and accountability). The report also highlights the complex and variable characteristics of TPPs, including the wide range of TPP pathways into teaching, declining enrollment trends, and high student debts and subpar working conditions that are disproportionately affecting BIPOC teachers and teacher candidates in a majority White teaching workforce. It addresses the various evaluative entities shaping the field of TPP evaluation, which bring about multiple evaluation objectives and processes that present both challenges of data collection burden and opportunities for program improvement. Grounded in the scientific research on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that teachers need to support student learning and development, the report identifies crucial TPP features associated with high quality preparation as targets for evaluation and provides a roadmap that links key evidence and measures to these TPP features while also addressing the strengths and weaknesses of these measures. The report also highlights teacher preparation systems in other high achieving countries as examples of effective evaluation processes.

Based on this critical information, the report makes recommendations to support the evaluation and improvement of TPPs by addressing the crucial components identified in the categories of (1) improving TPP accreditation and program approval; (2) enhancing TPP self-study; (3) providing system supports for TPP evaluation; and (4) creating system supports for teaching and teacher preparation. Recognizing that teacher preparation is situated in the larger societal contexts, these recommendations aim to address the multiple governmental and nongovernmental entities influencing TPP evaluation and improvement at the federal, state, and local levels. This report recognizes that addressing these complex issues requires funding and resources never before brought to bear in the domain of teacher preparation; however, doing so has never been more necessary and consequential.

Sub Unit

• AERA Research and Science Policy Sessions

Chair

• Robert E. Floden, Michigan State University

Participants

• Linda Darling-Hammond, Learning Policy Institute

• Kenneth M. Zeichner, University of Washington

Commentators

• Amy Stuart Wells, Bank Street College of Education

• Jennifer Robinson, Montclair State University