AN IDEAL TQ DATA SYSTEM - SECOND WAVE ELEMENTS

The second wave of data should also include information about graduates/completers, those obtaining certification, and employment. The second wave also includes information about teacher shortages and employment in public schools outside of the classroom. This second wave of data is typically more difficult to collect and includes a range of quantitative and qualitative data.

Graduation/Completion

After ensuring that basic data on graduates/completers is collected, preparation programs should collect two pieces of additional information: course content information and student perceptual data.  This data should be collected by all types of preparation programs and is certainly not limited to college courses, but also includes courses offered by alternative preparation programs.

The course content data should include a basic description of what each course covers in terms of knowledge and skills.  This is necessary for both content and pedagogy courses.  In terms of content courses, collecting such data allows an institution to match course content to certification test performance and eventually to graduates’ perceptions of how well the program prepared them to teach their chosen subject area.  In terms of pedagogy courses, collecting such data can also be linked to certification test performance and to graduates’ perceptions of how well the program prepared them to teach.  Such information is absolutely critical if preparation programs are going to be able to evaluate their effectiveness in preparing effective teachers.

The perceptual data must be collected through surveys of students enrolled in the programs.  The surveys should be administered at the beginning of the program and at yearly intervals thereafter until completion of the program.  The surveys administered during the program should gather information about students’ reasons for entering the program, any instructional experiences they have had (e.g., teaching younger children in day care or at church), their perceptions of the coursework taken, and their perceptions of how well they feel prepared to teach.  More detailed surveys should be administered at the end of student teaching to assess the overall program effectiveness in general and the student teaching experience in particular.

Several efforts underway are worth emulating:

First, Teacher Policy Research is a research partnership between the University at Albany and Stanford University that examines teachers, issues in teaching and teacher education to provide education policymakers with current, useful data to inform their policy decisions. Click here to review several sophisticated survey instruments that researchers have developed.

Recently, the researchers have begun to release findings from a multi-year study of teachers and teacher preparation programs to examine characteristics of teacher education and pathways into teaching and identify attributes that impact student outcomes in New York City schools.

Second, the Ohio Teacher Quality Partnership, launched in 2003, is conducting a comprehensive, longitudinal study of the preparation, in-school support and effectiveness of the state’s teachers. As a research consortium of Ohio's 50 colleges and universities, the TQP has developed a number of instruments and statistical tools to identify how the preparation and development of new teachers affect their success in the classroom as measured by the academic performance of their students.

Third, the California State University system is currently conducting a pilot study in order to make empirical connections between teacher preparation and K-12 student academic achievement. This two-year study is drawing on data from large school districts in California and information from employers about the gains that CSU-prepared teachers are making with their K-12 students.

Finally, the urban teacher education program at UCLA (Center X) has been tracking and studying its graduates for several years, with the goal of better understanding why their graduates were staying in urban schools at higher rates than their colleagues who didn’t receive specialized training and why they changed schools or left teaching altogether. Initial analyses are found in “Too angry to leave: Supporting new teachers’ commitment to transform urban schools,” in the Journal of Teacher Education. Click here to review surveys of the UCLA’s teacher education novices, residents, and graduates.

Certified Teachers

Not only should the state collect certification test scores, but the state should also collect domain scores.  For example, on a mathematics certification test, the state should collect the overall score, and the domain scores for domains such as algebra, geometry, and calculus.  Preparation programs can use such data to identify strengths and weaknesses in their preparation of students.  The domain scores should be collected for both content and pedagogy tests.

In addition, the state should require prospective teachers to complete an on-line survey before a certificate is given.  The survey could capture teachers’ perceptions about the efficacy of their preparation program, where they would like to teach, what they would like to teach, what type of students they would like to teach, how long they intend to stay in the profession, and the characteristics of schools in which they would like to teach.

Employment of Teachers

While collecting data that identifies the employment status and location of all teachers is critical, additional information is necessary to fully understand the dynamics of teacher supply, demand, mobility, turnover, and preparation.  States should collect information about what subject areas and courses each teacher is assigned to teach within each school.  In addition, the state should collect information on the percentage of the day each teacher is assigned to each subject area and course. For example, Texas collects teacher assignment data by full-time equivalent (FTE).  One FTE is a full-load of teaching in a particular school.  So, at the secondary level, a teacher that is expected to teach five classes per day would be at 1.0 FTE only if she or he actually taught five classes a day.  A teacher assigned to teach three classes a day would be at .60 FTE. Finally, the state should collect salary information on each teacher.  Such data is crucial to analyzing the effect of salary on teachers’ decisions to stay in the profession, quit the profession, or move from one school to another.

School Information

Not only should the state collect the objective data listed in wave one, but the state should also collect teacher perceptions of working conditions.  These surveys would assess teachers’ perceptions about the working conditions they experience and how these working conditions affect their intentions to stay in the profession, quit the profession, or move from one school to another. The Center for Teaching Quality has already administered such surveys in a number of states and has found strong relationships between specific teacher working conditions and teacher retention and student achievement. Click here for more information.

CTQ is conducting teacher working conditions in several states including Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and  Virginia.

Teacher Shortages

States should use the teacher assignment data and the teacher certification data to identify whether teachers are assigned in-field.  This data can then be used to determine shortage areas so that preparation programs can adjust their program output to match the shortage areas.  Click here to review Texas' reports.

Calculating teacher shortages are not a simple matter because federal "highly qualified" teacher reporting requirements and state education agency rules often mask “real” shortages as “mushy” certification categories can identify qualified teachers, when in fact, they are not.

Dr. Ken Futernick, a professor of education at California State University, Sacramento, has developed a TQ Indicator Index that offers a new way to calculate and calibrate the shortages of qualified teachers. Click here for more information.

Employment in Public Schools in Non-teaching Positions

Some recent research (Project X at UCLA) suggests that many well-qualified teachers leave the classroom for other positions within the public school realm rather than for non-education positions or positions in private schools.  Rather than collecting data only on teachers, SEAs could collect employment data on all public school employees.  In this way, SEAs, preparation programs, and school districts could gain a deeper understanding of attrition.  Having people leave the classroom for leadership positions is much different than having people leave the classroom to enter non-education fields. Click here for more information.

Last updated: March 17, 2006