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Our classrooms haven't kept pace with innovation. The Ford Model T represented breakthrough technology in its day--more than 100 years ago--but it wouldn't serve us well today. Likewise, our traditional classroom model from the same era doesn't work well for far too many students and teachers. In fact, as a result of this outdated model, it is more difficult for schools to find and keep great teachers, which ultimately hurts student learning. It's time to reimagine the teaching role. Here's a guide for how to do it.

Clinical practice opportunities are critical elements of teacher preparation. However, the landscape is extensive, encompassing an ever-growing variety of preparation models, from centuries-old traditional student teaching to newly minted registered apprenticeships. The purpose of this paper is to create a clinical practice lexicon for the profession that includes: (1) a definition for the two key types of clinical practice--(a) practice opportunities prior to full-time teaching and (b) full-time student teaching; and (2) an outline of the six common models of clinical practice, including defining characteristics and the efficacy of these models in preparing teachers for the classroom.

This literature review, aligned to National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) Clinical Practice Framework, explores various components of clinical practice and how they affect a range of outcomes, including aspiring teachers' feelings of preparedness, their entry into teaching, their retention in the classroom, and perhaps most importantly, their effectiveness once they are running a classroom of their own. This review primarily relies on published, peer-reviewed research and working papers, but includes some work by prominent organizations and task forces in the field to supplement areas where research is scarce and to provide more insight into the views of the field.

Licensure tests should be an efficient and comprehensive way for policymakers to ensure that all teachers possess the basic knowledge and skills they need to effectively teach students to read. Yet more than half of states use a weak licensure test that fails to adequately measure elementary teachers' knowledge of scientifically-based reading instruction. This shortcoming means that annually, nearly 100,000 elementary teachers across the country enter classrooms with false assurances that they are ready to teach reading, and the districts that hire them have false assurances that those teachers are adequately prepared. The National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) new analysis of the quality of reading licensure tests required for elementary teachers reveals not only some bright spots and strong test options used in some states, but also systematic weaknesses in the tests many states use to vet new teachers. While this analysis focuses on tests required for general elementary teachers' certification, every teacher of elementary-age students, including those certified in special education or teaching English learners, should demonstrate their knowledge of reading instruction. For this analysis, NCTQ examined two key questions: (1) What is the quality of the licensure tests? and (2) Which states use acceptable tests? Findings reveal: (1) Less than half of elementary teacher reading licensure tests adequately assess the core components of scientifically based reading instruction; and (2) Fewer than half of states use tests that signal whether teachers have the knowledge they need to teach students to read.

Creating a strong clinical practice experience for every teacher at scale requires that three core actors--prep programs, school districts, and states--work together. This framework sets out the six focus areas of clinical practice backed by research and supported by the field as the most important to build a quality clinical practice experience. It further identifies the actions that these core actors can take in each area. Based on survey responses of hundreds of practitioners from teacher prep programs and school districts, the authors learned that while their programs have much to be proud of, they also recognize that they are missing opportunities to deliver an exceptional clinical practice experience. This framework can help the core actors identify the aspects of their clinical practice programs that are already aligned with the evidence and illuminate opportunities to improve.

State education leaders across the country are rightly prioritizing efforts to improve elementary student reading outcomes. However, too often these initiatives do not focus enough on the key component to strong implementation and long-term sustainability: effective teachers. Only when state leaders implement a literacy strategy that prioritizes teacher effectiveness will states achieve a teacher workforce that can strengthen student literacy year after year. This report outlines five policy actions states can take to ensure a well-prepared teacher workforce that can implement and sustain the science of reading in classrooms across the country. For each of the five policy actions, a set of indicators are identified that show whether a state is strategically and coherently implementing each policy action. The indicators are presented under each policy action to provide explicit guidance for state education leaders, policymakers, and advocates.

For states to succeed in their efforts to improve reading instruction, they must ensure teachers are prepared to implement and sustain scientifically based reading instruction. The states most successful in leveraging policy to improve reading outcomes for students have taken a cohesive and comprehensive approach focused on improving teachers' capacity to deliver great reading instruction. This action guide outlines five key actions states should take to strengthen implementation of reading policies. Each policy action in isolation can make a difference for students. But when done in concert, these policy actions build upon and bolster the others, leading to state policies that are greater than the sum of their parts in their ability to boost reading outcomes for students. This action guide also shares stories of states that have leveraged these policy actions to support greater teacher effectiveness in reading. Each section explores how state leaders invested in teacher prep programs and teachers, the pitfalls they faced, and how they overcame them.

Teachers of color have a positive impact on all students and make a particularly pronounced difference in the lives of students of color. For students of color, having a teacher of color can increase academic achievement and advanced course-taking, reduce discipline incidents, improve attendance, increase high school graduation and college-going, as well as increase social-emotional outcomes like grit and sense of self-efficacy. The national movement for teacher diversity--driven by both a national reckoning around racial injustice and mounting research on the positive impact that teachers of color have on students--is clearly ascendant. This is a policy area that will require sustained commitment from states to achieve progress and increase the number of teachers of color in the workforce. So to what extent is this commitment reflected in state policies and funding? In National Council on Teacher Quality's first comprehensive scan of state teacher diversity policies, this report takes stock of key trends across 50 states and the District of Columbia. [This report received funding from the Belk Foundation.]

The purpose of the Teacher Prep Review is to guarantee teachers have expertise in reading instruction (as well as other essential areas NCTQ assesses) before being trusted to teach children to read. By regularly reviewing the reading coursework provided by nearly 700 elementary teacher preparation programs, the National Council on Teacher Quality seeks basic evidence that programs are using what is empirically known about how to teach reading--so every child can learn to read. [For a list of sponsors of "Teacher Prep Review," see page 53 of the full text.]

Years of cognitive research has shown background knowledge in key subject areas, like science and social studies, is essential to reading comprehension, helping students not only understand the meaning of a text, but also interpret new words and ideas. Failing to provide the opportunity to learn to read has devastating effects on children and alarmingly, the current reality fails some students disproportionately--the number of students reading proficiently drops precipitously for Black students, Hispanic students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. Critical to righting this inequity are well-prepared teachers who can deliver engaging opportunities for students to learn core content foundational for reading comprehension. However, for teachers to provide students with background knowledge to support them in becoming successful readers, they must first gain the knowledge themselves. Teacher preparation programs, therefore, play a critical role in providing aspiring teachers with the content knowledge they need to teach their future students. Are preparation programs achieving this goal? To find out, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) engaged experts from the field, teacher preparation program faculty, and measurement experts to design the Building Content Knowledge standard, one of the seven standards of the Teacher Prep Review, to ascertain the extent to which undergraduate elementary teacher preparation programs (and the institutions in which they are housed) build candidates' content knowledge in two core subject areas: science and social studies. [For a list of sponsors of "Teacher Prep Review," see page 28 of the full text.]

Up until 2020, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores had increased only slightly since the early 1990s with large achievement gaps for students of color and students living in poverty. Modest gains in fourth grade reading proficiency since 1992 were erased during the pandemic. The insufficient progress in reading even before the pandemic suggests that teachers need more and better instruction in how to teach reading. In response, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) revised its "Teacher Prep Review" Reading Foundations standard (formerly known as the Early Reading standard) to address advances in research and the rigor of the standard. This revised standard seeks to better reflect the field's expectations for preparation programs in teaching aspiring teacher how to teach reading, better identifying those programs that excel in preparing aspiring teachers in this area, and clearly indicating the areas of improvement needed by teacher preparation programs to improve teacher efficacy in teaching reading. The revision of the NCTQ Reading Foundations standard also updates the indicators of what programs are teaching (referred to as instructional approaches)--"Instructional Hours," "Objective Measures of Knowledge," "Practice/Application," and "Background Materials." NCTQ revised the Reading Foundations standard to reflect current research on scientifically based reading instruction and on the knowledge and skills needed by teachers. This report details the process to revise the Reading Foundations standard.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen increased concerns about the teacher workforce and intensified news reporting describing teacher shortages. In response, many states have enacted policies largely in the absence of data on the precise nature of their staffing challenges, such as lowering standards across the board for entry into teaching. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) set out to understand the key data elements states are currently collecting, which data is missing, and the level of detail that is needed to meaningfully answer questions about the teacher workforce. This work expands on a "State of the States 2021: State Reporting of Teacher Supply and Demand Data" (ED617872) that focused on the teacher supply and demand data states make public, which revealed serious gaps in the public availability of data. In July 2022, NCTQ surveyed states to determine the extent to which they collect data on 39 distinct data elements related to teacher supply, demand, and demographics. Three aspects of the data were looked at: (1) organization; (2) subject-area; and (3) timing. Forty-three states provided responses to the survey. This brief outlines the survey findings considering three dimensions of the teacher workforce: (1) health of the teacher pipeline; (2) teacher turnover (attrition), mobility, and shortages; and (3) equitable assignment of teachers. Findings indicate that many states have data available, but not all data elements are connected, limiting states' ability to answer key questions. It was also found that states often collect information on teachers as individuals, but not on teaching positions, a key missing element to accurately understand teacher demand and the local teacher labor market.

Strong teacher and principal evaluation systems have the potential to help teachers and principals improve their practice, to exit teachers who are perennially ineffective, to retain teachers who are effective and learn from them, and to increase the overall quality of a district's teacher workforce. As states respond to widespread concerns (both real and perceived) about teacher shortages and resignations, evaluation systems also have a role to play: Schools need access to fair, valid evaluation systems to help identify and retain highly effective teachers and principals, as well as to support those who are struggling. Given the importance of state policies to set the conditions for successful evaluation systems, National Council on Teacher Quality has regularly collected data, starting in 2011, to chart states' progress in adopting evidence-based evaluation practices. This report analyzes statewide policies for teacher and principal evaluations in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, using data collected in fall of 2021 and verified by states in early 2022, in order to answer the following questions: (1) What role does the state play in teacher and principal evaluation design?; (2) What components are included in a teacher or principal's evaluation?; (3) When, where, how, and by whom are evaluations conducted?; and (4) Are evaluations used for support and improvement?

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes three types of state policies that aim to attain three purposes: (1) Differentiated pay: To attract teachers to traditionally hard-to-staff subjects or schools; (2) Performance pay: To reward high-performing teachers; and (3) Pay for prior work: To compensate teacher candidates for prior experience relevant to teaching. With the influx of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, some states have designed new or expanded already existing initiatives aimed to attract or retain teachers to hard-to-staff positions. The analysis in this report includes these state strategies, while acknowledging that they might only remain in place temporarily while ESSER funds remain available. [For the the second report in this three-part series, "State of the States 2021: Teacher Preparation Policy," see ED611532.]

Improving instruction in elementary mathematics is critical to supporting better academic and life outcomes for our students. While weak elementary math instruction is not a new challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have exacerbated the issue. Many states have reported that students have lost more learning in math than in reading over the past two years, and pre-existing gaps in math achievement between low-poverty and high-poverty schools and between majority-White and majority-Black schools have worsened since 2020. In a new NCTQ report, "Teacher Prep Review: Preparation for Teaching Elementary Mathematics," we examine over 1,100 teacher preparation programs to determine how much time programs dedicate to mathematics as well as how that time is spent. The NCTQ analysis evaluates programs for their coverage of both the key mathematics content that elementary teachers need as well as how to teach those concepts. The NCTQ data shows that undergraduate programs now require an average of 19% more time for elementary math coursework than they did in 2014, a sizable increase. However, in spite of allocating more time to overall math preparation, many programs do not make optimal use of this instructional time, failing to ensure that required courses cover the math content knowledge essential for fully preparing new elementary teachers. [For a list of sponsors of "Teacher Prep Review," see page 26 of the full text.]

When Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act in 2015, it intended to send a strong signal: any further encroachment of federal authority on the nation's K-12 schools needed to end. Compared to its more prescriptive predecessor in 2000, known as No Child Left Behind, the new law, dubbed "ESSA" for the Every Student Succeeds Act, established a set of goals states should strive to meet, only one of which is the subject of this analysis: Ensuring that all students have equal access to qualified and effective teachers. Before the law's signing in 2015, there was momentum around this issue with the federal government requiring states to submit "equity plans" and offering significant guidance to states on how to do so. This report examines the status of the ESSA provision six years after it was signed into law, analyzing how states responded to the law's requirement that they must collect and report the necessary data documenting the equitable distribution of their teacher talent among their schools.

For any labor market to function properly, clear information is needed to guide decision making; its absence invariably leads to less than optimal decisions and inefficiencies. While the broader labor market is riddled with imperfect information, the teacher labor market is particularly vulnerable--largely for the lack of the most basic information. This analysis examines the essential role of state education agencies in collecting and reporting information about their own teacher labor markets in the following areas: (1) teacher shortages and surpluses; (2) teacher retention and mobility; and (3) equitable distribution of the teacher workforce. Compared to most labor markets, the teacher labor market is highly localized, meaning that the hiring decision processes usually happen within the confines of small geographical areas, often blind to the existing resources and needs of nearby localities. This hyperlocalization limits job opportunities for teachers and hiring opportunities for schools and exacerbates inequities across school districts, which is why states play such an essential role in the generation and provision of information, given their broader scope and perspective. States' data reporting can apprise districts of the available teacher talent across the state and provide them with a broader view to help them fashion appropriate policies to respond to the issues that exist within their own teacher labor market. As there is a wide and uneven distribution of technical capacity and practices among the consumers of this information, this brief also examines how state education agencies help make this information both available and functional for their end users.

Most states continue to lack a comprehensive set of policies to improve teacher knowledge of evidence-based early reading methods. This excerpt from NCTQ's "State of the States 2021: Teacher Preparation Policy" examines state policy trends that govern requirements for early reading instruction knowledge in teacher preparation and licensure. [This document was excerpted from NCTQ's "State of the States 2021: Teacher Preparation Policy" (ED611532).]

Building a strong, diverse teacher workforce in sufficient numbers requires understanding of the points along the pathway into the teaching profession where aspiring teachers are most likely lost. Currently, policymakers, state education agencies, and teacher prep programs have limited insight into the obstacles along this pathway, largely due to incomplete or inaccurate data. This makes it hard to identify when and why prospective teachers, particularly persons of color, elect not to consider teaching or, having started down the pathway, exit prematurely. In this study, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) focuses on a pivotal point for elementary teachers: when teacher candidates take their licensure tests on the content knowledge defined by states as necessary for the job of teaching. States generally expect elementary teachers to have foundational knowledge in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Low rates of candidates passing licensure tests, especially for candidates of color, have become the subject of considerable debate in states across the country and have some states questioning their testing regimes. These low pass rates present a challenge for policymakers and educator preparation programs working to both diversify the profession and also ensure that every classroom is staffed with a well-prepared teacher. This paper provides the framework for the pass rate data available for each state. While the focus here is on elementary content licensure tests, the analysis can be applied to any assessment on any subject or grade span. [This report was funded by the Gates Family Foundation.]

Children across the country face unprecedented levels of missed instruction as a result of the pandemic. As millions of students and teachers continue remote learning, experiment with hybrid models, and ultimately return to their classrooms, the nation has a greater need than ever for teachers who have the skills to address the challenges ahead. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has only further exacerbated the stark inequities of the American education system. All children deserve access to well-prepared teachers with a strong foundation in their subject area, the instructional skills to accelerate learning, and the understanding to support and inspire. As the regulating authority over teacher preparation, states play an essential role in ensuring that their teacher prep programs are delivering new teachers who meet state standards. This analysis considers state trends in many of the most essential aspects of delivering classroom-ready teachers, including the qualifications for being admitted into teacher preparation and earning a teaching license, with a focus on states' shifting testing regimes. It also examines recent activity to diversify the teacher workforce as well as to improve the quality of clinical practice. These data are based on policy information that was collected and confirmed in spring 2020. This report is the second in a series from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) examining the current status of states' teacher policies. The focus is on state oversight of teacher preparation programs and licensure test requirements, particularly traditional preparation programs. [For the first report in the series, see "Teacher & Principal Evaluation Policy. State of the States 2019" (ED598961).]

New to the "Teacher Prep Review" in 2021 is a standard measuring the contributions teacher preparation programs make to the diversity of their state's and local community's teacher workforce. Formerly titled Selection Criteria, the Admissions standard has been a part of the "Teacher Prep Review" since its inception in 2013. While there have been multiple, albeit largely unsuccessful efforts over the years to press upon the nation's teacher preparation programs the need to raise academic standards for admission, less systematic attention has gone to diversifying the profession. That may be because the research has essentially flipped in the last twenty years, with earlier findings noting few tangible benefits from matching teacher race with student race to a newer body of research that has turned up dramatic benefits. In a unique undertaking, this study examines the important intersection between programs' admissions standards with their goals to achieve greater diversity and highlights programs that have successfully achieved both. [A list of "Teacher Prep Review" sponsors can be found on page 32 of the PDF.]

All but four states in the nation now permit teachers to come into the profession through an "alternate route," compared to only a few 30 years ago. Alternate routes into the classroom have grown so acceptable that about one in five teachers now enters the profession through one of these programs, which offer some real benefits to the profession. Nearly double the percentage of teacher candidates in alternate route programs identify as Black and more than double identify as Latino as compared to traditional teacher preparation programs (15% vs. 8%, and 13% vs. 5%, respectively). Additionally, alternate route candidates often fill jobs in hard-to-staff subjects and schools. When it comes to requirements for alternate routes, states must balance between upholding standards for educators regardless of how they come into the profession with providing flexibility by differentiating the requirements they place on these programs from traditional pathways. Since alternate route candidates typically become a teacher of record immediately or shortly after they enter into a program, establishing strong entrance requirements and specifying essential supports are important levers states should exercise. This brief explores how states fare in the balancing act between appropriate oversight and flexibility.

While teachers continue to learn and grow as they gain experience, the foundation for their skills is provided by their initial teacher education program. And of all the parts of teacher education, none is more important than clinical practice. In general, the field of education has long recognized and championed the importance of practice. A 2010 blue ribbon panel organized by the profession's accrediting body called on the field of education to see clinical experiences as the core of teacher preparation. The two standards addressed in this brief take different, but complementary approaches to better understanding the quality of clinical practice: the Clinical Practice standard addresses three elements of clinical practice that have an outsized effect on its overall value, while the Classroom Management standard takes a closer look at how teacher candidates practice a key instructional skill. For each standard, the brief provides key findings from the 2020 "Teacher Prep Review" (TPR) and a list of exemplary certification programs that earned an "A" in 2020. Three recommendations for educator preparation programs conclude the brief. [A list of "Teacher Prep Review" sponsors can be found on page 28 of the PDF.]

New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality finds significant progress on the science of reading instruction in teacher preparation. For the first time since NCTQ began publishing program ratings in its 2013 Teacher Prep Review, the number of programs in the nation to embrace reading science has crossed the halfway mark, with 51 percent of 1,000 evaluated traditional elementary teacher preparation programs across the country now earning an A or B grade for their coverage of the key components of the science of reading--up from just 35 percent seven years ago. [A list of "Teacher Prep Review" sponsors can be found on page 2 of the PDF.]

A significant number of teachers move from one state to another each year. State policies can make it difficult for public school teachers to qualify to teach in another state. From a teacher's perspective, meeting another state's licensure requirements can feel bureaucratic and time-consuming. State requirements for out-of-state teachers enable states to withhold licenses from an applicant who may pose a risk to a state's students or who does not meet its standards. This report presents a brief overview of what states require before hiring an out of state teacher.

More states are recognizing the importance of leadership roles for teachers, signaling that state policy is reflecting teachers' voices. Thirty-five states now have formal teacher leadership policies, with a net of eight additional states adopting formal teacher leadership policies in the past two years. Even though the implementation of any teacher leadership policy happens at the school district level, policies at the state level can catalyze and legitimize teacher leadership opportunities, providing districts with the runway to implement meaningful teacher leader pathways and latitude to reallocate funding for such purposes. Statewide recognition of the importance of leadership roles for classroom teachers indicates that we are moving toward a national consensus that our best teachers should have opportunities to remain in the classroom and assume leadership roles.

Prospective teacher candidates should make informed decisions about which teacher preparation programs are likely to best prepare them to succeed on their licensure tests and in the classroom. However, too few states publish data that demonstrate whether specific teacher preparation programs are adequately preparing teacher candidates for their futures. This NCTQ Databurst describes each state's pass rate reporting and analyzes the quality of each state's required elementary content licensure test.

Each year a significant number of aspiring elementary teachers, having successfully completed their formal preparation, are still unable to become licensed professionals. That's because an alarming number of candidates fail their licensing tests, far surpassing the failure rate for other professions' entry tests, bar exams, and boards. The fact that more candidates fail than pass on their first attempt, and a quarter are never able to earn a passing score, raises serious concerns--especially regarding the effect this failure has on diversity goals. While many factors going back to candidates' earliest years of education may explain this phenomenon, higher education institutions are in the best position to alter this untenable outcome. Historically, these tests have posed a greater challenge for candidates of color. Even allowing for costly and demoralizing retakes, a higher proportion of black and Hispanic candidates fail the most widely used content test (the focus of this report) than white candidates. These results are at the forefront of policy discussions because of the renewed imperative to increase diversity in the teaching profession. This report probes sky-high failure rates on teacher licensing tests and asks what must change so that more new teachers can enter classrooms with the knowledge they need to do their jobs well. To identify the most effective levers for change, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) conducted analyses on undergraduate preparation programs at more than 800 institutions as well as 250 graduate programs and a small sample of alternative route programs. One likely cause of licensing exam failure is the profound lack of alignment between preparation program coursework and the content knowledge that states have determined an aspiring teacher needs to be an effective elementary teacher. This report will also highlight several examples of programs that have strong requirements and also report high pass rates on their licensing tests. [Additional contributions to "A Fair Chance: Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce" were made by Danielle Wilcox and Dan Brown.]

This report is the first in a series by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) that examines the current status of states' teacher policies. Updated on a two-year cycle, each will cover a specific area of teacher policy. This report focuses on state teacher policies governing what states require in evaluations of both teachers and principals. These reports are all drawn from data collected for NCTQ's State Teacher Policy Database (STPD), where the full breadth of states' teacher policies are captured and updated on a two-year cycle. They serve the important purpose of highlighting key trends across the nation on teacher policies, showing where the 50 states and the District of Columbia stand relative to one another. This report and the two that follow replace NCTQ's long-running "State Teacher Policy Yearbook." [Kelli Lakis and Lisa Staresina provided research support to this project.]

Deciding under what circumstances teachers are laid off during a reduction in force or dismissed will always be a tightrope. Teachers deserve a fair process and one that respects their contributions to a school district, just as every student deserves competent teachers. This NCTQ Databurst looks at how states approach these two tough issues, examining if states are achieving an appropriate balance of interests between teachers and students.

The past decade has been marked by rapid changes in teacher evaluations. While many districts and states announced their intention to install better systems, they faced political and structural challenges. In this study, [National Council on Teacher Quality] NCTQ examines evidence of the impact of teacher evaluation in six places (four districts and two states) that have stayed the course in developing and implementing improved teacher evaluation systems: Dallas Independent School District, Denver Public Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools, Newark Public Schools, New Mexico, and Tennessee. The districts and states highlighted here have surmounted challenges to implement successful teacher evaluation systems that are yielding substantial benefits.

This study examines all 50 states' and the District of Columbia's requirements regarding the science of reading for elementary and special education teacher candidates.

The "2018 Teacher Prep Review" examines the results of rating 567 traditional graduate programs, 129 alternative route programs, and 18 residencies preparing both elementary and secondary teachers. The Review includes recommendations for programs to make changes to improve the quality of teachers entering the profession and highlights exemplary programs for states and institutions to examine.

For most Americans, the high school years played a pivotal role in shaping what they know about subjects such as U.S. history, world history, literature, geometry and biology. For many, the high school years provide one of the last opportunities to gain valuable life-enhancing insights, for example, reading a classic novel such as "To Kill a Mockingbird"; discovering what happened during historical events such as the French Revolution and the transformation of African nations through colonization and decolonization; learning about scientific theories that go beyond the students' own experience, ranging from nanotechnology to relativity; and understanding how numbers interact to form the backbone of the universe. Even Americans who continue on to college will focus their coursework on one or two majors, and therefore, as adults, they will rely on their high school education for knowledge about most other academic subjects. This report examines teacher preparation programs at higher education institutions when preparing secondary teachers.

For the last 4 years, 10 leading education organizations have collaborated on a study series that includes teacher voice in conversations and research about educator effectiveness. Initially conceptualized by teacher leaders from the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and with their continued input, the "From Good to Great" study series has asked exemplary teachers to share which professional supports and experiences helped them to increase their effectiveness as educators as they progressed through the various stages of their careers. There are multiple reasons why exemplary teachers' perspectives provide key insights for researchers and policy makers, including: (1) The need for smart investments in teacher development; and (2) The need for teacher voice in policy. This report (the third in the study series) summarizes the findings from a 2016 survey of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and builds on the results of a similar survey of State and National Teachers of the Year in 2013-2014. Namely: (1) At the preservice stage, once again respondents ranked a high quality clinical practicum as by far the most important experience; (2) This study again confirmed that an effective school principal and mentors (both assigned and informal) rose to the top of the list, with appropriate school placements and common planning time following close behind; (3) National Board Certification and other ongoing formal education (such as graduate coursework) were seen as the most important experiences, followed by self-chosen professional development outside of the school district and collaboration with peers; and (4) At the teacher leader stage, as with the 2013-14 survey, the National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) surveyed thought serving as a mentor or coach was most important for helping them continue to improve their practice, even after they had already been established as effective teachers. These findings call attention to the need for applied learning opportunities for early-career teachers, opportunities for collaboration across the career continuum, and teacher leadership. Other themes that emerged from this survey included the importance of a full-year final clinical practicum and teacher choice in ongoing professional development options, including teacher leadership roles.

The National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2016 "Landscape in Teacher Preparation" has examined 875 traditional undergraduate programs that prepare elementary school teachers, finding widely variable levels of quality. Some programs prepare teachers whom parents would love to see in front of their child's classroom. Too many others graduate teachers who still need substantial assistance and experience before they are truly ready for the position they now are authorized to fill. Since 2014, programs have made gains in a few key areas, but still have far to go in others. One of the purposes of this report is to help teacher preparation programs identify which aspects of their programs need revision to enhance their selection and preparation of the next generation of teachers. In addition, states can use these findings to evaluate how they oversee teacher prep programs and to determine how they can help these programs improve. School districts can use the results of this report as a catalog of where to recruit both student teachers and new teachers and as a basis for talking with programs about what needs to be included in their training. High school students planning on becoming teachers and their guidance counselors may also find this report helpful in identifying the best college choices.

Every year about 190,000 teacher candidates graduate from traditional teacher preparation programs believing they are ready to begin the relentlessly demanding career of teaching. Each of these aspiring teachers will have taken at least one education psychology course or instructional methods course (usually both) designed to teach them how children learn and how to create lessons whose content their students will remember. These topics then will be revisited in much of their other coursework. No other subjects will receive as much attention during teacher training as those that purportedly focus on how students learn. This report contends that textbooks used in this coursework neglect to teach what is known about how students learn despite its central importance in training. Compelling cognitive research that meets scientific standards about how to teach for understanding and retention barely gets a mention in many texts, while anecdotal information is dressed up as science. Theories du jour and debunked notions are being passed on to new teachers as knowledge and best practice. Put simply, publishers and authors are failing both aspiring teachers and the teaching profession. They are not ensuring that the core texts designed to produce the next generation of teachers are giving candidates the most fundamental information needed to make learning "stick." The transfer of knowledge--from researchers to publishers to teacher educators to aspiring teachers--is not happening while the need to impart it has never been more urgent. In practice, what does that mean for aspiring teachers? First, they are wasting a lot of money. Each teacher candidate likely will buy at least one often--pricey book for their ed psych course and another for their methods course, leading to upwards of $40 million in total spending by each year's crop of new teachers. But far more important, when teachers are not trained well, they try to learn on the job--by guessing in the classroom. Being unprepared can overwhelm and even defeat novice teachers at the moment they are most vulnerable. Students are the losers. The antidote, of course, is that teacher candidates should learn research-proven instructional strategies in their textbooks and practice them--again and again--during their training. This report examines some of the most widely used textbooks in teacher preparation programs today. Specifically, it looks for the degree to which teacher candidates are taught instructional strategies that decades of research confirm can be the most effective. The following appendices are available online: (1) Textbooks examined in this report; (2) Programs included in this study; (3) Methodology of textbook evaluations; (4) Additional findings on textbook coverage of strategies; (5) Methodology of program evaluations; (6) Additional findings on program preparation on strategies; (7) Research inventory; (8) Sample lesson plan format; (9) Sample indicators for observation instrument; (10) Analysis of textbook references; (11) The rigor of typical assignments in teacher prep coursework on instruction; (12) More about "Teacher Prep Review" 2016's Standard 11: Fundamentals of Instruction; and (13) Author and publisher responses.

A great deal of attention has been given to the learning loss that can take place under brand new teachers, but there is a growing body of research that shows moving teachers between grade levels, or "grade switching," can actually be harmful to student achievement, too. While grade switching is a common practice for many reasons (about a quarter of all teachers in a school have switched grades any given year), there are a few things to consider when determining teacher assignments for the coming year. This document discusses the following topics for consideration: (1) Grade switching is not good for teachers; (2) The negative impact on student learning is big and can still be measured two years out; (3) "Strategic" grade switching may actually backfire; (4) The most vulnerable students are more likely to be assigned to a teacher who switched grades; (5) Teachers who switch schools see an even bigger decline in effectiveness; and (6) Keeping teachers in the same grade also helps retain teachers. Recommendations for school leaders are included.

The country is at a crossroads in implementing measures of educator effectiveness in K-12 classrooms. While the vast majority of states require student growth and achievement to be factored into teacher and principal evaluations, most states and school districts are now grappling with the practical realities of implementing these policies. In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date policy trends on how states are evaluating teachers. The report also breaks new ground by providing a look at the policy landscape on principal effectiveness. Finally, NCTQ continues to examine state efforts to connect the dots--that is, use the results of evaluations to better inform practice and make decisions of consequence for teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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. In order to understand the different approaches taken by programs housed on the same university campus, researchers examined 13 institutions that offer both a graduate and undergraduate program preparing new elementary and/or secondary teachers. 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. Teacher candidates in elementary programs should begin teacher preparation having demonstrated sufficient mastery of a broad range of content--including literature and composition, history and geography, and the basic sciences--to be able to deliver robust instruction. Their training should address early reading, elementary math, classroom management, assessment and data, and methods and design of instruction. Training for secondary teachers should address methods specific to their subject, adolescent literacy, classroom management, as well as assessment and data. Teacher preparation is likely to only add value when each of these courses is an integral and inseparable part of training focused on specific skills. The following are appended: (1) Examples of courses categorized under topic headings; and (2) Elementary program pairs.

Ever so slowly, the United States is taking a harder look at how its teacher preparation schools are improving the quality of the teachers they produce. The signs are everywhere--from proposed federal action to state legislatures and school boards passing new oversight laws and regulations, to a newly marshaled push for stronger accreditation by the institutions themselves. The country is finally waking up to the critical importance of improving teacher preparation quality to produce more classroom-ready teachers. But as "NCTQ Teacher Prep Review 2014" shows, far more needs to be done to expand the pool of teachers properly prepared to meet the challenges of the contemporary American classroom. Still, an upsurge in quality has begun. It is good news indeed to be able to report some movement, however spotty, given the many attempts to improve teacher preparation that never even got off the ground. Among the key findings are: (1) Of the 1,668 programs (housed in 836 institutions) ranked in the "Review," only 26 elementary programs and 81 secondary programs make NCTQ's lists of Top Ranked programs; (2) Elementary programs continue to be far weaker than their secondary counterparts, with 1.7 times as many elementary programs as secondary programs found to be failing; (3) The field also maintains a scattershot approach to mathematics preparation: 23 states cannot boast a single program that provides solid math preparation resembling the practices of high-performing nations; (4) District superintendents tell us that elementary teachers simply do not know the core subjects of the elementary curriculum; (5) Three out of four programs fail even to insist that applicants be in the top half of the college-going population, a modest academic standard; (6) 17 institutions had "both" an elementary and a secondary program on the lists of Top Ranked programs: Arizona State University, CUNY-Hunter College (NY), Dallas Baptist University (TX), Eastern Connecticut State University, Fort Hays State University (KS), Gordon College (MA), Lipscomb University (TN), Miami University of Ohio, Montclair State University (NJ), Northwest Nazarene University (ID), Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Ohio State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, the University of Houston (TX), the University of Montana and Western Governors University (UT); and (7) The most promising sign of progress is in the training teacher candidates receive in how to manage classrooms--an area that new teachers perennially describe as their most difficult challenge. Of the institutions that submitted new materials and asked to be rescored for this edition, 15 percent made important improvements to the guidance they give to their student teachers about how to set rules, how to minimize classroom disruption, and how to apply consequences to misbehavior fairly and effectively. [Listed appendices are not included in this report: (1) Rankings for all programs in "NCTQ Teacher Prep Review 2014"; (2) Methodology; (3) Background and Methodology for Alternative Certification Pilot; and (4) Next steps for aspiring teachers. For the June 2014 edition, see ED545343.]

What teachers are paid matters. Many factors play a role in making the decision to become a teacher, but, for many people, compensation heavily influences the decision not only to enter the profession but also whether to stay in it. Compensation certainly influences where a teacher chooses to work. Because school districts take different approaches to compensation, prospective teachers should accept a new job with their eyes wide open. Knowing where salaries start and end is not enough; they must also understand the path they will take from starting salary to the top of the scale. This report examines the relative competitiveness of teacher salaries among large school districts in the United States, answering three mostly ignored questions: (1) In which districts will teachers rise to the top of the salary ladder the fastest; (2) Over the span of a full career, where can teachers earn the most money; and (3) After adjusting for cost of living, which districts provide teachers the most "bang for the buck"? Appended are: (1) What factors into teacher salary systems; (2) Assumptions for lifetime earnings calculations in performance pay districts: Average Teacher Performance; Above Average Teacher Performance; and Exemplary Teacher Performance; and (3) Districts by lifetime earnings and years to high annual salaries (unadjusted for cost of living).

Using evidence from more than 500 colleges and universities producing nearly half of the nation's new teachers annually, this report answers two questions that go to the heart of whether the demands of teacher preparation are well matched to the demands of the classroom: Are teacher candidates graded too easily, misleading them about their readiness to teach? Are teacher preparation programs providing sufficiently rigorous training, or does the approach to training drive higher grades? [Listed appendices available online for this document: (1) Institutions' scores on the Rigor Standard; (2) Methodology to analyze grade differences as revealed by honors; (3) Methodology to analyze coursework; (4) Converting criterion-deficient assignments to criterion-referenced assignments; (5) Validating the findings on teacher candidates' grades; (6) Statistical relationship between course grades and proportion of grades based on criterion-deficient assignments; and (7) Exploring the effects of high grades. Numerous organizations sponsored this work; the full list can be seen on page 2 of the document.]

At the request of the Urban League of Miami, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) analyzed the distribution of teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In this paper, the authors examine teacher-level data to determine whether indicators correlated with teacher quality vary across the district based on socioeconomic differences, and recommend ways the district can distribute teachers in a more equitable way. The paper--while specific to Miami-Dade County--examines an issue with which school districts across the country struggle. To that end, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has begun collecting data on student enrollment by race and ethnicity and teacher characteristics. The first summary of these data indicates that (1) black students are more likely to be taught by a first-year teacher than white students; (2) their teachers are more likely to be paid less; and (3) they are more likely to have an uncertified or unlicensed teacher. An appendix, "Research base that supports the five indicators used in the report," is included.

"Teacher Prep Review 2014" is the second edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) annual assessment of the nation's 2,400 teacher prep programs. The "Review" uncovers early evidence that teacher prep programs are beginning to make changes. It arrives at a time of heightened, unprecedented activity across the nation to improve teacher preparation. Ever so slowly, the United States is taking a harder look at how its teacher preparation schools are improving the quality of the teachers they produce. The signs are everywhere--from proposed federal action to state legislatures and school boards passing new oversight laws and regulations, to a newly marshaled push for stronger accreditation by the institutions themselves. The country is finally waking up to the critical importance of improving teacher preparation quality to produce more classroom-ready teachers. But as "NCTQ Teacher Prep Review 2014" shows, far more needs to be done to expand the pool of teachers properly prepared to meet the challenges of the contemporary American classroom. Still, an upsurge in quality has begun. It is good news indeed to be able to report some movement, however spotty, given the many attempts to improve teacher preparation that never even got off the ground. Among the key findings are: (1) Of the 1,668 programs (housed in 836 institutions) ranked in the "Review," only 26 elementary programs and 81 secondary programs make NCTQ's lists of Top Ranked programs; (2) Elementary programs continue to be far weaker than their secondary counterparts, with 1.7 times as many elementary programs as secondary programs found to be failing; (3) The field also maintains a scattershot approach to mathematics preparation: 23 states cannot boast a single program that provides solid math preparation resembling the practices of high-performing nations; (4) District superintendents tell us that elementary teachers simply do not know the core subjects of the elementary curriculum; (5) Three out of four programs fail even to insist that applicants be in the top half of the college-going population, a modest academic standard. One encouraging sign: nine institutions raised their admission standards after the release of the first edition of the "Review"; (6) Ten institutions had "both" an elementary and a secondary program on the lists of Top Ranked programs: Arizona State University, Miami University of Ohio, CUNY-Hunter College (NY), Dallas Baptist University (TX), Eastern Connecticut State University, Fort Hays State University (KS), Lipscomb University (TN), Ohio State University, the University of Houston (TX), and Western Governors University (UT); and (7) The most promising sign of progress is in the training teacher candidates receive in how to manage classrooms--an area that new teachers perennially describe as their most difficult challenge. Of the institutions that submitted new materials and asked to be rescored for this edition, 15 percent made important improvements to the guidance they give to their student teachers about how to set rules, how to minimize classroom disruption, and how to apply consequences to misbehavior fairly and effectively. Four appendices (available separately) provide: (1) Rankings for all programs in the "NCTQ Teacher Prep Review 2014" (ED545344); (2) Methodology (ED545345); (3) Background and Methodology for Alternative Certification Pilot (ED545346); and (4) Next steps for aspiring teachers (ED545347). [For the 2013 edition of this report, see ED543515.]