Teacher Preparation

Why It Matters
Teaching is a complex task that requires an extensive body of knowledge and skills. For example, quality teachers must master not only their subject matter, but also how to organize and deliver lessons, how to assess students’ progress and refine instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners, and how to work well with parents and colleagues.

University-based teacher education programs or alternative certification programs are only the start of a teacher’s preparation. The process continues when a beginning teacher faces total immersion into the profession with full responsibility for his or her own classroom. Strong mentoring and induction programs are critical in these early years for continued preparation and success in teaching.

What We’re Doing
IBM Transitions to Teaching: CTQ is working closely with the recently announced IBM Transition to Teaching program, a unique venture to bring skilled mid-career private sector employees into the teaching profession. IBM has asked Barnett Berry, President of CTQ, to serve as an advisor in the design and pilot phase of the initiative which will allow United States employees in various geographic areas to participate in a high quality alternative route program. The program, which will be launched in North Carolina and New York initially, will include online and university-based course work, online mentoring, and student teaching so that the former IBM employees can meet state teacher licensure standards.

Bank Street College and selected New York City Region schools are collaborating on a project designed to establish an alternative model of teacher education as well as school organizational structures that support student and teacher learning and ultimately result in higher levels of teacher retention. The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is conducting an evaluation of the project to assist Bank Street College and New York City schools in identifying the critical elements of an effective internship based model of teacher education which can be replicated by other institutions. The results of the evaluation will not only benefit the targeted schools in their partnership with Bank Street College, but will also serve as a model for other school districts and teacher preparation institutions.

CTQ is also serving as a critical friend evaluator to Bank Street College and the University of Virginia in their work with the Teachers for a New Era initiative. Bank Street College and UVA are two of eleven colleges and universities that received a major 3-5 year grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York as well the Annenberg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation to transform their teacher education programs. TNE is designed around three principals: decisions about the teacher education program are driven by evidence; arts and sciences faculty are engaged in the preparation of teachers; and teacher education is an academically taught clinical practice that extends into an induction period when teachers first begin their teaching career. CTQ has provided an external source of documentation, assessment, and recommendations to each of these institutions as they engage in this important work of improving their preparation and induction programs for beginning teachers.

Most recently, CTQ in partnership with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), is working to examine urban residency programs and document their governance and funding structures, instructional content, candidate characteristics and other key features of the programs. The research also seeks to surface existing supports and constraints for continuing this residency work, including funding and policy. Nothing is more crucial to the success of today’s students than a thoroughly prepared and supported teaching corps, and this research will offer important data for continued efforts to place a quality teacher in every American classroom.