- Evaluation Studies Underway
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Teacher Quality
- Impact Evaluation of Teacher and Leader Performance Evaluation Systems
- Study of the Distribution of Effective Teaching
- NRC—National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
- Teacher Incentive Fund
- Teacher Residency Study
- Professional Development in Reading
- Professional Development in Math
- Teacher Training and Routes to Certification
- Teacher Preparation in Early Reading
- Teacher Induction
- Teacher Recruitment
- Alternative Certification
- Teacher Preparation in the U.S.
- Impact Evaluation of Math Professional Development
- Choice
- English Language Learning
- Students with Disabilities
- Other Evaluations
- Technical Assistance
A Study of Promising Features of Teacher Preparation Programs
Contractor: Abt Associates Inc., Chesapeake Research Associates, and Dillon-Goodson Research Associates
Background/Research Questions:
The Department of Education's Blueprint for Reform is focused on a comprehensive approach to improving teacher effectiveness at all points along the continuum, including teacher preparation. One way to affect teacher quality, and thus teacher effectiveness, is by improving teacher preparation in traditional university based settings where the majority of teachers are prepared. The purpose of this study is to provide information about promising teacher preparation program features (e.g., substantive clinical experience).
The evaluation effort will address the following questions related to teacher preparation, teacher outcomes, and student achievement:
- What is the impact on student achievement of teachers who choose to enter teaching through a traditional university-based teacher preparation program that includes promising preparation features versus those teachers who choose to enter teaching through university-based programs that have more typical features?
- What teacher preparation features (such as opportunities to teach throughout the preparation program, extent or nature of the clinical practice, and structured feedback during clinical practice) are associated with teacher effectiveness?
- What teacher preparation features are associated with teacher effectiveness for special populations (i.e. Special Education Students and English Language Learners)?
Design:
The impact evaluation will form a pair of novice teachers in the same grade at each of the schools included in the study, with one teacher pursuing certification through a program with intensive clinical practice (including fieldwork and student teaching) and one prepared through a more typical program. Students will be randomly assigned to teachers in the pair. A comparison of the outcomes within the teacher pairs, informs the first research question. Exploiting the variation in program requirements within the study sample provides information about the second research question. The study also includes additional complementary analyses to provide more information about teaching special populations using state administrative data and teacher preparation program information. Data collection will begin in 2012 and includes documentation of the nature and extent of teacher preparation activities, student administrative record information, pre- and post-test scores, and measures of teacher practice.
Cost/Duration: $10,454,503.00 over 4 years (September 2011 – September 2015)
Current Status: Contract was awarded in September 2011. Refinement of study design and recruitment is underway. A report on this study will be announced on http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/.