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Resource Materials -
National Reports on Teacher Education

Our thanks to Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University; Martin E. Orland, National Academy of Sciences; and Ross Wiener, The Education Trust, for compiling this list as background for their forum, "National Reports on Teacher Education: Where do We Go From Here?" presented at the AACTE 59th Annual Meeting, February 2007.

Recently-published reports

Teaching Policy to Improve Student Learning:  Lessons from Abroad (pdf)
[http://www.aspeninstitute.org/education/teachingpolicy/]
This short report compares what several countries—United States, Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland—are doing to improve the quality of their teaching forces.  Common threads include the importance of induction programs, and the recognition that pre-service education and licensing exams are not sufficient to indicate which teachers will be effective in the classroom.

Report of the Commission on No Child Left Behind (pdf)
[http://www.nclbcommission.org/]
This lengthy report is the work of a privately funded commission, published by the Aspen Institute.  Among the many recommendations is one that the NCLB’s emphasis on “Highly Qualified Teachers” should be replaced by the idea of “Highly Qualified Effective Teachers” (HQET).  HQET status would be determined by value-added systems that measure the learning gains of teacher's students combine with peer and principal evaluations.

Turning the Tide: Strategies for Producing the Mathematics and Science Teachers Our Schools Need (pdf)
[http://www.edtrust.org/ under "National Association of System Heads"]
This short report by the National Association of System Heads looks at successful examples of programs designed to recruit and prepare science and mathematics teachers for K-12.

Educating School Teachers by Arthur Levine (pdf)
[http://www.edschools.org/teacher_report.htm]
This report recommends that schools of education become professional schools focused on classroom practice, that student achievement should become the primary measure of program success, that five-year programs should become the norm, and that effective quality control mechanisms should be established for all teacher education programs.

Tough Choices or Tough Times – Report of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce.  This report argues that the United States’ economic position in the world is at risk because its education system is lagging compared to other countries.  It calls for major changes, including state Teacher Development Agencies to oversee teaching, recruiting teachers from the top third of high school students, and changing the way teachers are paid.  The report is available for purchase at: http://www.skillscommission.org/request_copy.htm.

Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do.  This edited book from 2005 “is considered a state-of-the-art compendium on the knowledge base for teacher preparation.”  It recommends that all new teachers should have strong subject matter knowledge, basic understandings about how people learn and develop, knowledge about how children acquire and use language, and the ability to apply this in the context of real classrooms.  Available for purchase at: http://www.josseybass.com/ under "Teacher Education & Professional Development".

Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education.  This book is the result of a long-term study that had two principal aims: to analyze the current state of research on teacher education and to propose directions for future research.  The book's chapters do this for key topics concerning teacher education.  Available for purchase at http://www.erlbaum.com/ under "Teacher Education".

Upcoming reports

Revisiting the Academic Proficiency of Prospective Teachers by Drew Gitomer of Educational Testing Service. Expected: spring 2007.  A follow-up study to The Academic Quality of Perspective Teachers (Gitomer, Latham, and Ziomek, 1999), which was the first large-scale analysis of the SAT and ACT scores of those who passed teacher licensure tests.  It found that elementary ed candidates had much lower math and verbal scores than “all college graduates,” but SAT scores for teachers who passed content-area licensing tests were generally higher than those of  “all college graduates.”  The new study will indicate if changes have occurred. 

National Council on Teacher Quality’s State Teacher Policy Yearbook.  Expected: March or April 2007.  A state-by-state analysis and national summary on 27 state policy goals re: certification, preparation, evaluation, and compensation of teachers. 

National Council on Teacher Quality & the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation’s Study of State Alternative Certification Programs. 
Expected: spring 2007.  This study will address the question: Has alternative certification lived up to its original promise of a flexible, legitimate route for talent to the profession?

National Research Council’s Study of Teacher Preparation in the United States.  Expected: early fall, 2007.  A congressionally mandated study by the Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Science, it is an assessment and synthesis of the evidence associated with teacher preparation programs in both traditional and alternative settings.  See: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/teacherprep/

Mathematica Policy Research’s Evaluation of Teacher Preparation Models.  Expected: late fall/early winter 2007.  This study assesses the relationship between traditional and alternative models of teacher preparation and student and teacher outcomes.  Questions include: Is the extent and content of teacher preparation, especially the amount of coursework, related to student achievement?  And: Is whether preparation is completed before assumption of a classroom related to student achievement?  See:  http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/techprepdesign.pdf