Education at the Crossroads: The State of Teacher Preparation

The fifth Annual Summit on Evidence-based Education was held on April 22, 2010 at the Berkeley City Club in Berkeley California. Its purpose was to bring together leaders from a wide range of professions and organizations to identify the obstacles to, and opportunities for, promoting evidence-based decision making in special education.

Each Summit is designed to be a working session with representatives from various disciplines, service and research areas as well as consumers. Participants are asked to review certain resource materials prior to the Summit and complete a survey about evidence-based education in their area of interest. They received materials from the presentations, a copy of the Summit Report, and ongoing membership in the Wing Institute Knowledge Network.

Our five Summits have been a tremendous success, with participants representing many different organizations and professions. The presentations and proceedings from these Summits are available at our web site: www.winginstitute.org.

The theme of the 2010 Summit was: Education at the Crossroads: The State of Teacher Preparation. Education reform ultimately depends on the ability of the teacher to implement the details of the reform. Yet, most teachers are ill prepared to face these challenges. The key is to link student outcomes to teacher performance, and teacher quality to teacher preparation, induction and support. This Summit provided a review of the latest research and exemplars regarding teacher preparation and support, including: review of skills critical for effective teaching, the current status of teacher preparatory programs in this context, and the critical functions of teacher induction and retention. The Wing Institute has brought together three individuals whose professional accomplishments have significantly advanced our knowledge of teacher preparation: Dr. James Kauffman, Dr. Dan Reschly, and Dr. Larry Maheady.

The 2010 Summit examined Data-Based Decision making in the context of the Wing Institute’s Evidence-Based Education Roadmap:

• Efficacy (What Works?)

• Effectiveness (When Does It Work?)

• Implementation (How Do We Make It Work?)

• Monitoring (Is It Working?)

2010 Summit participants included over seventy representatives from private and public agencies, state and local school agencies, health and community services, advocacy and parents. Click here to view the participant list. The day included presentations from leading experts in evidence-based special education, participant working sessions, and discussions of follow-up action plans.

Agenda