Educator Preparation Program Administrator

North Carolina established the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program in 1986 to recruit teacher candidates into public colleges. Due to budgetary concerns, the program in no longer in effect; however, lessons can still be learned from the program structure.The state paid students to attend a public university if they agreed to spend at least four years teaching in a public school after graduation. According to a recent report on the program, 60 percent of the fellows who started teaching 20 years ago still work in public schools today.

This report provides insight into the perspective of classroom experts who have first-hand experience of the connections between preparation and practice. A team of teachers drafted this report, which highlights essential components for educator preparation programs, discusses how preparation aligns with the larger landscape of the profession, provides examples from nine programs with promising practices, and offers recommendations for using technology in teacher preparation.

This publication by Bank Street College of Education is a collection of occasional papers on several topics related to teaching in challenging schools. The collection speaks most directly to teachers and provides helpful insights in thinking about the goals and essential elements of effective teacher preparation.  

This 2008 publication from The Aspen Institute discusses the clinical residency model of teacher preparation as both an effective preparation strategy and a direct response to the problems of teacher recruitment and retention in high-need schools. Urban teacher residency programs generally have high percentages of minority graduates who are specifically trained, through strong partnerships with urban schools, to be successful teachers in those schools after graduation. The programs continue to mentor and support new teachers for several years after they take full-time positions.

The Arkansas Partnership for Teacher Quality—a consortium involving Arkansas educator preparation programs—the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and the National Education Association conduct a periodic survey of graduates of the state’s educator preparation programs within their first five years of program completion. The survey is a rich source of data on teachers’ postgraduate teaching experience and their views of how well their preparation programs prepared them for teaching careers. 

Written by faculty at the University of Kansas Center for Science Education, this report presents a detailed and compelling analysis of the extent of the need for new secondary mathematics teachers throughout Kansas in the coming years. The analysis is intended to ground a response by Kansas preparation programs, with support from state policymakers, to ensure that they are preparing enough teachers to replace those who are retiring and placing them in the districts that need them the most.

Written for the Center for American Progress, this report argues that in view of the increasing presence of English language learners (ELLs) in our nation’s classrooms, all teachers need preparation that enables them to meet these students’ needs. The report focuses principally on policies related to teacher preparation that would encourage or require educator preparation programs to prepare all teacher candidates to work with ELLs.

This 2013 report from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) summarizes trends in teacher preparation based on programs’ response to the organization’s annual Professional Education Data System survey. The report notes several increasingly common practices among educator preparation programs, including the increased collection of data on graduates in the field and the growing prevalence of online learning; it also notes the continued inability to diversify the teaching profession.

This 2010 report of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Blue Ribbon Commission stresses the central role of clinical practice in reforming teacher preparation and recommends that educator preparation programs include inservice development of their graduates as part of their responsibility to ensure their effectiveness in the classroom. 

This nontraditional program specifically trains school principals to become more effective leaders in high-need urban schools. New Leaders blends significant on-the-job training with coursework and mentoring from local educators. It includes a full year-long paid residency, with graduates placed in administrative positions in partner districts or charter schools and one more year of on-the-job professional development.