TEACHERS & PREPARATION INSTITUTIONS - QUESTIONS

In this section, we propose some questions that teacher preparation personnel and policymakers could ask about teachers and teacher preparation. The following questions are divided into five sections: (a) pipeline of teachers, (b) teacher production, (c) teacher employment, (d) teacher retention, and (e) program effectiveness. Individual teacher effects will be explored in teachers and students.

Pipeline of Teachers

Studying the pipeline of teachers is important for a number of reasons. Even before students graduate from a program, the program has entrants and leavers. Being able to identify these students and ascertaining their reasons for entering and leaving help a program modify the experiences offered to students and, ultimately, increase the pipeline of students. For example, if the students who leave the program report that the primary reason they left the program was lack of support, then the program could develop a mentoring program for the students to increase the pipeline.

• Who enters teaching preparation programs?
• Who leaves teacher certification programs before graduation?
• Why do students leave the program before graduation?

Teacher Production

For over a decade America’s public schools have needed to hire over 200,000 new teachers annually. Most analysts agree the teacher shortage has yet to abate. Overall, schools of education produce enough new teachers to meet current needs; however, the teachers produced may not be prepared to teach in the subjects and grades needed as well as in the urban and rural locations where shortages are most dire. 

Schools of education admit many students who do not become teachers; those who do, do not always enter teaching (at least initially). Some of these prospective teachers may enter teaching later.

Collecting survey data on who enters teaching, now, later, or not at all, is critical to improving production and distribution of new teachers. For example, if students who chose not to obtain a certificate report were more likely to have completed student teaching in a low-achieving school, and those students reported that a negative student-teaching experience convinced them not to enter teaching, then the program could rethink they way student teachers are assigned and supported. TQ data on teachers and their preparation programs need to answer the following questions:

• Which students pass the certification tests?
• What percentages of students pass the certification tests?
• What are the reasons for not passing the certification tests?

• Who does and does not obtain certification after graduating from teacher preparation programs?
• Why do some graduates not obtain certification?
• Where do students complete their teaching practicum (student teaching or first experience teaching)?

In addition, programs could identify the number of certificate holders by certificate area and match these data to data on the local labor market shortages. For example, a program could determine a rather sever shortage of secondary mathematics, bilingual, and special education teachers in the local labor market but find that, on average, only 10% of program graduates obtain certification in these areas, while 60% obtain certification in elementary education, for which there is no local labor market shortage. Consequently, the program could develop strategies to recruit more students into the shortage areas and perhaps even transfer from the nonshortage areas into the shortage areas.

• What are the local labor market shortages?
• How well do production levels meet the local labor market shortages?

Teacher Employment

Even after obtaining certification, a relatively large number of graduates never enter teaching. Some graduates may have never intended on teaching, but rather viewed a teaching certificate as a fall-back plan. Others simply may have been unable to find a job. Analyzing the data of who enters and does not enter teaching by teacher characteristics and certificate can assist programs in identifying trends. In addition, surveys that ask graduates why they chose not to enter teaching could help identify areas of weakness in the preparation program.

• Who actually enters teaching?
• What percentages of graduates enter teaching?
• In which schools do the graduates become teachers?

Teacher Retention

Numerous analyses have documented that teacher attrition is a U-shaped function in which teachers are most at risk of leaving the profession in the very first years and last years of their teaching career. One outcome of teacher preparation programs is producing teachers who enter teaching and stay in the profession. Thus, programs could collect and analyze employment data to calculate the 1-, 3- and 5-year retention rates of their graduates. Such data would provide one piece of evidence about the effectiveness of the program. Numerous factors, however, influence teachers’ decisions to stay or leave the profession. Programs, therefore, also could develop and implement survey instruments that capture the reasons why teachers leave teaching. Such data could inform programs if they need to alter their preparation in any way or they need to collaborate with local school districts to provide more or different types of support for new teachers.

• How long do teachers stay in teaching?
• How long do they stay in particular types of schools (e.g., high-poverty schools, predominantly minority schools, low-achieving schools)?

Program Effectiveness

The ultimate goal of any teacher preparation program is to produce teachers who are effective in increasing student achievement as measured in a variety of different ways.

• What are the specific components of teacher preparation programs?
• Which preparation programs are associated with the production of effective teachers?
• What specific components of teacher preparation programs are associated with teacher effectiveness?

However, the ability to answer these questions depends on the data collected. As is discussed below, these data must include detailed information about teachers that is collected during their preparation and while working. At its best, such data should be shared between government agencies and even between states.  

Researchers at State University of New York at Albany and at Stanford University are engaged in a variety of studies to determine how to attract and retain high-quality teachers and leaders, especially in low-performing schools. They have already completed a number of insightful analyses and have created a range of powerful survey instruments and other methodological tools.

Last updated: February 22, 2006