Using nationally-representative data, this study finds that teachers who completed more methods-related coursework and practice teaching felt better prepared and were more likely to stay in teaching. These positive relationships were similar across preparation routes and tended to be greater among graduates from competitive colleges, males, mathematics and science teachers, as well as teachers in urban, rural, and secondary schools.
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University faculty and Teach For America personnel codesigned a multiyear qualitative examination of their joint enterprise of developing urban teachers to promote equitable educative opportunities for all children. Analysis indicates the challenges and possibilities of collaborations through (a) contract negotiation, (b) communication, (c) procedural and pragmatic congruence, (d) response to constituent needs, and (e) creation of an authentic and sustainable partnership.
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Teachers' perceptions of students' academic ability vary significantly by the race of the student. This study examines how students' test scores and teacher reports of students' social and behavioral skills explain black-white differences in teacher perceptions of students' academic ability. Using teacher fixed-effects models and the ECLS-K data from the fall and spring of kindergarten, this study finds that racial differences in teachers perceptions of students' academic ability are mostly explained by test scores, teacher reports of students' social and behavioral skills, and teachers' perceptions of academic ability from the beginning of the year. Behaving well at the beginning of the school year is especially important for teacher perceptions of black students' academic ability.
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This interview study focuses on the role that teachers play in identifying and addressing the challenges faced by their high-poverty urban schools. We found that teachers grant their principal considerable discretion in setting the initial reform agenda but ultimately grant or withhold support based on whether their principal’s approach to teacher leadership has been inclusive or instrumental.
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This study evaluates the relationship between access to school counselors and several critical indicators of student transitions between high school and college.
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New teacher evaluation systems are being designed, implemented and piloted in many states. The goal of these new systems is to provide more accurate and objective information on teacher performance than current systems do. Ideally, these new systems provide information for accountability purposes but also for helping teachers improve their performance. Achieving these goals is not likely unless we change our approach to designing such systems from a political process and adopt an engineering perspective. Taking an engineering design approach can lead to solid designs for teacher evaluation systems, provide opportunities for improvement through monitoring and feedback, and create accountability for the design process because the information on teacher performance these systems do provide can be evaluated against the goals and intended uses that were specified.
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Policy makers have recently proposed to evaluate teacher preparation programs in order to hold them accountable for the quality of the teachers they prepare. Although definitions of teacher quality vary depending on the stakeholder’s perspective, there is a growing consensus among policy makers that high quality teaching should have a positive impact on student achievement, but other factors matter as well. This article argues that teacher preparation programs are only one of several critical factors that contribute to teacher quality. Because programs must conform to state accreditation mandates and must also cooperate with surrounding school districts to provide high quality field placement settings, accountability for teacher quality should be shared by the universities, the state board of education and the schools. To effectively strengthen teacher quality, all institutions involved must develop a shared vision of high quality teaching and work collaboratively to achieve that goal.
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Despite the relative prevalence of teacher education positions in university Education departments, relatively few doctoral programs prepare graduate students for teacher education work, specifically. As a result, new teacher educators often expend significant energy ‘on the job’ learning how to do the complex work involved in educating teachers. Increasingly, the creation of teacher-education focused doctoral programs has been held up as a promising approach for helping to regenerate teacher education. This commentary aims to share some of that promise, while also highlighting various factors that make creating and sustaining such programs so challenging.
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Online teacher education coursework provides many advantages; however, online coursework has limitations for certain courses, mainly pertaining to safe selection, use, and disposal of chemicals. For example, science methods and science methods-like courses that teach inquiry methods require the use of chemicals for middle and secondary certification levels. One limitation, the development of understanding of safe and ethical practice and disposal of chemicals during inquiry instruction crosses into the grey area of nonfeasance or misfeasance, if chemicals are omitted. Avoiding the use and discussion of safe and ethical practice for any reason, while lawful, is an inappropriate omission that may place a university and university instructors in legal risk. Further, K-12 schools that hire certified teachers fresh out of a certification program expect a certain level of understanding of professional standards which are consistent with state and national standards and guidelines. The question, How might instructors of online science methods courses implement safe and ethical practice using chemicals when many students connect asynchronously, or via videoconferencing software from remote locations, is a troubling question.
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