State Education Leader

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 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. 

The Education Trust developed this brief to describe the problem of the inequitable access to excellent teachers and provide policy recommendations for addressing it, including the following:

• Produce better information on teacher effectiveness and place it in the hands of those who need it.
• Require that teacher evaluations focus on effectiveness and require districts to reform hiring and placement practices.
• Provide incentives for teachers to work in schools and ensure equitable access to effective teachers. 

Through the Georgia Project EQ Web portal, Georgia districts receive guidance and support on developing district equity plans. These district equity plans use district-level data to target resources in addressing specific, local needs related to teacher equity issues. 

A first draft of this workbook was codeveloped by National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center) staff and an outside researcher (Marguerite Roza, Ph.D., University of Washington). TQ Center staff then substantially updated the workbook for its wider dissemination to participants at a national workshop. Regional center staff may find this workbook useful in supporting in-depth conversations with state education agency personnel.  

This national webcast, which was facilitated by Candace Crawford, a senior policy associate at The Education Trust, brought together experts and practitioners to discuss existing research and strategies that promote equitable access to excellent teachers. The presenters included Judy Wurtzel, advisor to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education; Cortney Rowland, a senior policy associate at the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center); and Charles Clotfelter, Ph.D., a professor of public policy, economics, and law at Duke University.

Codeveloped by National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality staff and an outside researcher (Jennifer Imazeki, Ph.D., San Diego State University), this brief summarizes existing literature on issues of equity. It goes beyond describing the problem and offers solutions (including cost-effectiveness) that states might consider adopting.

This PowerPoint presentation by National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality Director Sabrina Laine, Ph.D., for the Georgia Equity Plan Meeting contains research- and expert-based recommendations for achieving equity. Feel free to reproduce the slides for your work with other states.