Educator Preparation and Certification

Follow up with recent educator preparation program graduates to obtain their views of the strengths and weaknesses of their preparation in the program, especially for working in high-need schools, and respond to any problems and recommendations generated from the survey analysis.

Improve the validity and rigor of the assessments educator preparation programs currently use to measure the strength of their graduates’ content knowledge, teaching skill, and commitment to teaching underserved students. 

Develop strong educator preparation program and local education agency partnerships to streamline or revise approval processes for educator preparation programs and other teacher preparation providers to implement high-quality teacher residency or grow-your-own programs that directly supply high-need local education agencies with more qualified and effective teachers.

Encourage educator preparation program and local education agency partnerships to provide seamless transitions from preparation through induction to professional teaching. To help balance teacher supply and demand, foster communication between local education agencies and preparation programs regarding local needs for new hires. 

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.