Education Drivers
Data Mining
Presentations
This report presents PEDS findings from the 2011 and 2012 surveys, which reported on the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years. Some of the findings in this report counter common myths about higher education-based preparation programs. Others show that there is still much work to be done.
The Changing Teacher Preparation Profession: A Report from AACTE's Professional Education Data System (PEDS). (2013). Washington: American Association of College for Teacher Education.
This article discusses instructional coaching as well as the eight factors that can increase the likelihood that coaching will be a real fix for a school. Instructional coaching holds much potential for improving the way teachers teach and the way students learn, but that potential will only be realized if leaders plan their coaching program with care.
Annenburg Institute for School Reform. (2004). Instructional Coaching: Professional development strategies that improve instruction.Retrieved from: http://www.annenberginstitute.org/publications/professional-development-strategies-professional-learning-communitiesinstructional-coac
Teacher professional development is essential to efforts to improve our schools. This article maps the terrain of research on this important topic. It first provides an overview of what we have learned as a field, about effective professional development programs and their impact on teacher learning.
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 30(8), 3–15.
The purpose of this guide is to help district leaders take on the challenge of ensuring that students have equitable access to excellent teachers. It shares some early lessons the Education Trust has learned from districts about the levers available to prioritize low-income students and students of color in teacher quality initiatives. The guide outlines a seven-stage process that can help leaders define their own challenges, explore underlying causes, and develop strategies to ensure all schools and students have equitable access to effective teachers.
Bromberg, M. (2016). Achieving Equitable Access to Strong Teachers: A Guide for District Leaders. Education Trust.
CEELO reviewed data on 21 states’ principal licensure requirements, conducted structured interviews with experts on principal preparation and professional development in 7 states, and spoke with staff at the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Institute for School Leadership.
Brown, K. C., Squires, J., Connors-Tadros, L., & Horowitz, M. (2014). What do we know about principal preparation, licensure requirements, and professional development for school leaders. New Brunswick, NJ: Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes.
By analyzing data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, the authors empirically test four of the core assumptions embedded in current arguments for expanding alternative teacher certification (AC):
Cohen-Vogel, L., & Smith, T. M. (2007). Qualifications and assignments of alternatively certified teachers: Testing core assumptions. American Educational Research Journal, 44(3), 732-753.
The study compares the effectiveness of different routes to teaching. It finds there is no significant difference in the effectiveness of teachers who were traditionally trained when compared to teachers who obtained training through alternative credential programs.
Constantine, J., D. Player, T. Silva, K. Hallgren, M. Grider, and J. Deke, 2009. An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, Final Report (NCEE 2009- 4043). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
This paper examines data on 39 charter schools and correlates these data with school effectiveness. We find that class size, per-pupil expenditure, teacher certification, and teacher training—are not correlated with school effectiveness. In stark contrast, we show that frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations—explains approximately 45 percent of the variation in school effectiveness.
Dobbie, W., & Fryer Jr, R. G. (2013). Getting beneath the veil of effective schools: Evidence from New York City. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(4), 28-60.
This study examines the influence of administrator credential programs, on-the-job experiences, and the standards in the development of urban public school principals.
Fultz, M. Assessing the Relationship Between Administrator Preparation Programs and Job Performance.
The authors fit multilevel logistic regression models to a large state administrative dataset in order to examine (1) if the percentage of SWDs a teacher instructs was associated with turnover, (2) if this association varied by student disability, and (3) how these associations were moderated by special education certification.
Gilmour, A. F., & Wehby, J. H. (2019). The Association Between Teaching Students with Disabilities and Teacher Turnover.
This brief quantifies the fundamentally chaotic nature of elementary teacher preparation for initial certification, which is by far the most popular choice of individuals who consider teaching. While there is overlap in the topics each undergraduate/graduate program pair covers, what's more striking are the different course requirements--even though both programs are offered by the same education school at the same institution. Ideally, teacher candidates in each program pair should receive preparation that is not only consistent, but also high quality in its design.
Greenberg, J., & Dugan, N. (2015). Incoherent by Design: What You Should Know about Differences between Undergraduate and Graduate Training of Elementary Teachers. National Council on Teacher Quality.
This paper investigate the most commonly used exam, the School Leaders Licensure Assessment (SLLA), using 10 years of data on Tennessee test takers. This paper found that although candidates with higher scores are more likely to be hired as principals, we find little evidence that SLLA scores predict measures of principal job performance, including supervisors’ evaluation ratings or teachers’ assessments of school leadership from a statewide survey.
Grissom, J. A., Mitani, H., & Blissett, R. S. (2017). Principal licensure exams and future job performance: Evidence from the School Leaders Licensure Assessment. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 39(2), 248-280.
This new research addresses a number of critical questions: Are a teacher’s cognitive skills a good predictor of teacher quality? This study examines the student achievement of 36 developed countries in the context of teacher cognitive skills. This study finds substantial differences in teacher cognitive skills across countries that are strongly related to student performance.
Hanushek, E. A., Piopiunik, M., & Wiederhold, S. (2014). The value of smarter teachers: International evidence on teacher cognitive skills and student performance (No. w20727). National Bureau of Economic Research.
The authors study the effects of various types of education and training on the ability of teachers to promote student achievement.
Harris, D. N., & Sass, T. R. (2011). Teacher training, teacher quality and student achievement. Journal of Public Economics, 95(7–8), 798-812.
This paper is based on an analysis of seven alternative certification programs to determine the characteristics of effective programs. Overall, findings suggest that an effective alternative certification program places candidates in schools with strong leadership, a collegial atmosphere, and adequate materials.
Humphrey, D. C., Wechsler, M. E., & Hough, H. J. (2008). Characteristics of effective alternative teacher certification programs. Teachers College Record, 110(1), 1-63.
This article reports on a longitudinal study designed to explore these questions. In 1999, researchers from The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers selected and interviewed a diverse group of 50 new teachers in the Massachusetts public schools.
Johnson, S. M., & Birkeland, S. E. (2003). Pursuing a “sense of success”: New teachers explain their career decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 581-617.
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified five studies of NBPTS certification that both fall within the scope of the Teacher Training, Evaluation, and Compensation topic area and meet WWC group design standards.
Mathematica Policy Research (2018). What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_nbpts_021318.pdf.
This annual publication is one of the best ongoing sources for tracking and analyzing important developments and trends in education over time using the latest available data. In 2019 the spotlights were on: “Early Childhood Care Arrangements”; “Choices and Costs Characteristics of Public School Teachers Who Completed Alternative Route to Certification Programs”; and “Trends in Student Loan Debt for Graduate School Completers.”
McFarland, J., Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Wang, K., Hein, S., Diliberti, M., Forrest Cataldi, E., Bullock Mann, F., and Barmer, A. (2019). e Condition of Education 2019 (NCES 2019-144). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved [date] from https://nces.ed.gov/ pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019144.
This publication seeks to help answer those questions by bringing together findings from four reports commissioned by The Wallace Foundation to inform its development of a potential new initiative regarding university-based principal training.
Mendels, P. (2016). Improving University Principal Preparation Programs: Five Themes from the Field. Wallace Foundation.
This paper is the story of Fast Start. This paper will explain exactly how they transformed their approach to pre-service training and built Fast Start, and what they’ve learned along the way. They hope that their experience—including our failures—can serve as a road map for other preparation programs that want to find new ways to help new teachers find success.
Menzes, A., & Maier, A. (2014). Fast Start: Training Better Teachers Faster, with Focus, Practice and Feedback. TNTP. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED559704
The authors recommend a shift in focus for TFA from a program of mixed impact to one that makes measureable changes in the quality of education in America. Recommendations for policymakers and districts are provided.
Vasquez Heilig, J., & Jez, S. J. (2014). Teach For America: A return to the evidence.