Preparing Teachers Building Evidence for Sound Policy (2010) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Pathways to Teaching and Teacher Preparation Programs
3 Pathways to Teaching and Teacher Preparation Programs
Pages 33-64
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 33... ...
. States are also responsible for approving or accrediting teacher education programs and for authorizing, sponsoring, and monitoring newer pathways into teaching, often labeled "alternative" (Johnson et al., 2005; Feistritzer and Haar, 2008)
|
From page 34... ...
-- which drew on basic research on learning, research on the influences of different conditions on learning, research on the kinds of teacher education that are associated with particular instructional practices or student learning, and research on how teachers learn -- described what kinds of teacher knowledge and experiences appear to be most valuable in promoting student learning. Another report issued in 2005 focused on the somewhat different challenge of synthesizing the research on a variety of policies and practices in teacher preparation programs.
|
From page 35... ...
route -- a pathway that is in many ways distinct from the one that takes students through state college and university programs. But the ATC authorizes a variety of institutions, including school districts, higher education institutions, and state-run regional education service centers, to design and run certain certification programs.
|
From page 36... ...
Transition B Certificates Created to replace temporary licenses, this requires candidates to be enrolled in an alternative route program, such as NYC Teaching Fellows, Teach for America, Troops to Teachers, and the Teacher Opportunity Program, among others. Candidates complete summer preservice experience, including coursework and field experience, before becoming teachers of record and must complete additional certification requirements within 3 years.
|
From page 37... ...
State Graduation from an Out-of- Candidates earn a BA or MA degree in a teacher State Teacher Preparation preparation program from a college or university in Program another state and pass the Florida certification exams. District-Level Alternative Candidates complete district-level program and pass Certification Program Florida certification exam.
|
From page 38... ...
Community colleges have become increasingly pivotal players in teacher education, as more and more prospective teachers obtain their first 2 years of general training at these institutions. For example, in 2006, more than half of the teachers graduating from traditional teacher education programs in Florida were transfers from community colleges (Coulter and Vandal, 2007)
|
From page 39... ...
, and so it seems reasonable to ask whether some pathways produce better, that is, more effective, teachers. In particular, observers of the various teacher preparation options have wondered whether less traditional pathways yield less prepared teachers, or, alternatively, whether such pathways attract excellent teachers who would otherwise not have entered the field.
|
From page 40... ...
Their conclusion was that TFA provides policy makers with a useful way of recruiting teachers for hard-to-staff schools and does not appear to lower teacher quality in those schools. We note that because the control group in this study distinguished only certified and noncertified teachers, and thus mixed several types of non-TFA teachers -- those who came through traditional and other alternative paths, for example -- the findings are not clear.
|
From page 41... ...
. We note, however, that researchers are unlikely to be able to randomly assign teacher candidates to preparation programs so that any observed effects are likely to reflect the combination of training and the initial characteristics of the candidates.
|
From page 42... ...
Even obtaining a precise count of teacher preparation programs is complicated by the lack of a precise definition of what constitutes a program.3 For example, though most programs include both academic and classroom experience components, one institution may house multiple programs, and some programs operate in multiple institutions. At the next level, obtaining a quantitative picture of the features and general requirements of the programs is very difficult, and constructing a qualitative and nuanced picture of their content and character is nearly impossible.
|
From page 43... ...
Our primary conclusion from an examination of the information available on teacher preparation programs is that they are extremely diverse. Because it is so difficult to generalize about programs, we could determine very little about their quality.
|
From page 44... ...
Program Purpose All teacher preparation programs presumably have the goal of preparing excellent teachers, but a surprising variation is evident in their stated missions. For example, the mission of a teacher education program at the University of California at Los Angeles is to "Provide high-quality pre
|
From page 45... ...
. This aspect of preparation programs is not so much a subject for empirical research as a factor to be considered in evaluating a program's effectiveness in meeting its own goals.
|
From page 46... ...
As part of that survey, they collect information from teacher preparation programs. The most recent survey (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2005)
|
From page 47... ...
. There are many other topics that teacher preparation programs cover, including formative and summative assessment, the use of education data, teacher research, and the like.
|
From page 48... ...
The authors suggest that there are three components to learning this skill: practical experience with students (see section on Field and Clinical Experiences) , coursework on the links between theory and practice, and study with teacher educators who effectively model good classroom management.
|
From page 49... ...
In response to growing concern that teachers have not been adequately prepared to address the needs of diverse students, teacher preparation programs have begun to adapt their curricula to include this type of preparation, and researchers have begun to examine these programs and their effects (see, e.g., Banks et al., 2005; Hollins and Guzman, 2005; Pugach, 2005; Rothstein-Fisch and Trumbull, 2008)
|
From page 50... ...
They offer a variety of suggestions and models for how these goals might be pursued, grounded primarily in the findings of small-scale studies, but few of these have been adopted on a wide scale, and we do not know of any systematic research that has tested the proposed models. Foundations of Education Teacher preparation programs usually offer a range of courses that can be loosely categorized as covering the foundations of education, which include educational psychology, history of education, and sociology or philosophy of education (Floden and Meniketti, 2005)
|
From page 51... ...
Some New York City teacher preparation programs require the development of portfolios that track prospective teachers' coursework and field experience over time. Other capstone projects require action research, in which new teachers collect and analyze data from their field experiences related to a particular question about their practice, or teacher may complete a thesis (Boyd et al., 2009)
|
From page 52... ...
However, data from the 31 programs included in the New York City analysis provide a detailed look at the field experiences required of prospective elementary school teachers in the college-recommending programs in the study sample (Grossman et al., 2008)
|
From page 53... ...
. But many education faculty members do not work in teacher preparation programs -- the work of colleges and schools of education includes school psychology, counseling psychology, and other fields -- and faculty may be housed in different units across university and college campuses.
|
From page 54... ...
New projects and reviews of previous research have refocused policy attention on the need to learn more about teacher education, yet important questions remain unanswered. In our view, a fresh look at research related to teacher preparation is in order, with four goals:
|
From page 55... ...
so they can recruit "the best and brightest." The contrary premise is that teachers need particular and extensive preparation, and that therefore, states should increase the requirements for prospective teachers to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge. These conflicting approaches highlight interest in three factors: the selectivity of preparation programs; the timing of teacher training -- that is, the relative value of requiring teachers to complete most of their training before becoming a classroom teacher; and the effects of various components and characteristics of teacher preparation programs.
|
From page 56... ...
A similar variation was documented within traditional programs. This finding is consistent with smaller studies of minimum grade point average and college entrance test score requirements for admissions across teacher preparation programs, which also show that average requirements are comparable across traditional and alternative categories but that there is substantial variation in these measures of selectivity within categories (Leal, 2004; Walsh and Jacobs, 2007)
|
From page 57... ...
Other (N = 138) 0.21 0.16 0.92 526/532 aRatings from Barron's 2009 Profiles of American Colleges College Division of Barron's Educational Series (Ed.)
|
From page 58... ...
Exam Score Graduate of Florida Teacher 0.11 0.22 Math 0.57 929 Preparation Program Reading 0.76 ("Traditional") English 0.77 (N = 9,716)
|
From page 59... ...
Thus, pathways appear to differ more in how much preparation takes place before full certification than in the total amount of preparation that is required. Moreover, even programs that focus on preparation that occurs before candidates enter the classroom vary considerably in terms of the number of courses and extent of field experiences offered or required.
|
From page 60... ...
In contrast, most alternative programs allow prospective teachers who have a bachelor's degree but have not taken any teacher education courses to begin as teachers of record after some abbreviated preparation. Few states have minimum requirements for the quantity of preparation in these programs, but 27 states do have subject-matter degree or coursework requirements for teachers who go through these pathways, and 28 specify a minimum duration of preservice training.
|
From page 61... ...
What is clear, however, is the importance of developing more comprehensive data on which to base recommendations for the composition of teacher education programs and pathways. 6 Thoughit is worth noting that the preparation is likely to yield benefits even for individuals who do not become employed as teachers.
|
From page 62... ...
Nevertheless, while the field awaits further empirical study of the effects of different approaches, we believe that teacher preparation programs can benefit from learning about promising innovations and can look to the available evidence, case studies, and other literature for guidance. And we highlight the importance of research that can provide answers to the many pressing questions about teacher preparation.
|
From page 63... ...
; 2. the effectiveness of various approaches to preparing teachers in classroom management and teaching diverse learners; and 3.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.