Educator Preparation and Certification

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.

The UTeach Institute was originally founded at the University of Texas–Austin to provide a high-quality teacher preparation route for top science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. Now a national program replicated on numerous campuses, UTeach is a specific response to the need for increasing the number of STEM teachers in the pipeline.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UWM)/Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Special Education Internship Program offers urban-focused special education in four certification tracks: early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, and deaf and hard of hearing. It has an extremely high retention rate among its graduates, and the principal ratings of graduates are also quite high.

The Metropolitan Multicultural Teacher Education Program (MMTEP) specifically serves the needs of diverse students in Milwaukee’s public schools. Using the Star Teacher Pre-Screener to gauge applicants’ commitment and readiness to teach in challenging multicultural schools, the program recruits a high percentage of minority candidates who are currently paraprofessionals into a post-baccalaureate alternate route.