Teacher Preparation Program Outcomes: Value Added and Beyond

• In Event: 16.033 - After the Fire Alarm: How Value-Added Analyses of Teacher Preparation Programs May Contribute to Program Improvement

Abstract

In the last decade, two developments propelled education policymakers to focus on teachers and teacher preparation: (1) research began to consistently show that there was more variability in student test score gains between teachers in a school that between schools, which suggested that gains in student performance could result from improving teacher performance; (2) in most states, the data, statistical methods, and computational power were available to estimate value-added scores for individual teachers. From these developments, it was a simple step, methodologically speaking, from computing teacher value-added scores to aggregating those scores to provide average value-added scores for the graduates of teacher preparation programs. But actually accomplishing the objective and making it a constructive and productive process is anything but simple.

In 2008, President of the University of North Carolina General Administration (17 institution system), Erskine Bowles, announced a commitment to add teacher performance measures (value-added scores) to the accountability system for teacher preparation programs. To bring this to fruition, the UNC General Administration (led by Dr. Alisa Chapman), UNC Chapel Hill researchers, and 15 Deans of the schools of education at public institutions within the state developed what evolved into a strong and vibrant collaborative teacher quality research program.

After a rocky beginning and considerable resistance to having value-added estimates for teacher preparation programs, North Carolina’s Teacher Quality Research (TQR) program has developed into a robust collaboration with a progressive research agenda. In this paper, we will describe several of the key process components for TQR and the areas into which the research has developed, including key findings that have been used in education policy debates in North Carolina and elsewhere.

Key process elements include a commitment to providing the findings to the Deans prior to allowing others see them; transparency in the methods, data, and procedures; and responsiveness of the research team to the concerns of the Deans. As a result of the Deans’ desire to inform education policy questions and the support of the UNC GA to increase the use of evidence in education policymaking, the research agenda has expanded over the years to include studies (1) untangling the relationship between on-the-job development of novice teachers and the attrition of less effective teachers; (2) estimating the effects of principal preparation programs; (3) estimating the effects of teachers who entered the profession from different “portals” including alternative entry programs and out-of-state; (4) assessing the persistence of teachers from different preparation portals; (5) evaluating the effects of a novice teacher induction program that was developed and implemented through Race to the Top based on TQR findings about novice teachers; (6) incorporating alternative measures of teacher preparation program graduates including evaluation ratings and, most recently edTPA.

In this presentation, the developmental process and the research questions, data and methods, and key findings will be described.

Authors

• Gary Henry, Vanderbilt University

• Kevin Christopher Bastian, University of North Carolina