Skip to main content

Mobile Navigation

  • National
    • Policy
      • High Expectations
      • Quality Choices
      • Personalized Pathways
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Gadfly Newsletter
      • Gadfly Podcast
      • Flypaper Blog
      • Events
    • Covid-19
    • Scholars Program
  • Ohio
    • Policy
      • Priorities
      • Media & Testimony
    • Research
    • Commentary
      • Ohio Education Gadfly Biweekly
      • Ohio Gadfly Daily
  • Charter Authorizing
    • Application
    • Sponsored Schools
    • Resources
    • Our Work in Dayton
  • About
    • Mission
    • Board
    • Staff
    • Career
Home
Home
Advancing Educational Excellence

Main Navigation

  • National
  • Ohio
  • Charter Authorizing
  • About

National Menu

  • Policy
    • High Expectations
    • Quality Choices
    • Personalized Pathways
  • Research
  • Commentary
    • Gadfly Newsletter
    • Flypaper Blog
    • Gadfly Podcast
    • Events
  • COVID-19
  • Scholars Program
Flypaper

On Deck: Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers

Andrew Scanlan
4.20.2016

A new report from the Hope Street Group examines the quality of states’ teacher preparation programs.

The authors, all teachers themselves, conducted in-person focus groups and administered online surveys over six weeks between September and October 2015. Their sample included 1,988 certified educators in forty-nine states and the District of Columbia whose teaching experience ranged from one to thirty-one years across all grades and subjects. Authors conducted qualitative and content analysis to identify, categorize, and present reoccurring themes from the teacher’s responses.

Respondents were asked the same questions: If your state was going to evaluate teacher preparation programs, which measures should be included? Did your preparation program offer any specific courses related to serving in areas of high-need or persistently low-achieving populations? As you reflect on your teacher preparation experiences, what do you wish you’d had more of in terms of pedagogy? How have new college- and career-ready standards changed your instructional practices? And what would you change about teacher preparation for the next generation of teachers?

Over half the teachers reported lacking instruction about serving high-needs or persistently low-achieving populations; they also noted that their only exposure to college- and career-ready standards came through on-the-job experiences or in-service professional development, rather than pre-service training. And many lacked preparation in areas as common as classroom and behavior management, hands-on experiences, differentiated instruction, and child and adolescent development.

The findings add to a large body of research highlighting the need to upgrade teacher preparation to better reflect educators’ on-the-job needs. To move the needle in the right direction, the authors counsel that teacher preparation programs adopt common curricula. Further, they call on the federal government to institute funding mechanisms that incentivize collaboration between schools of education and local districts. Finally, they recommend using teacher retention data as an essential metric in pre-service program evaluation, as well as job placement data, graduation rates, educator effectiveness (student growth, observations, etc.), college pre-service coursework, opportunities for hands-on teaching, and feedback from teachers’ pre-service experiences.

SOURCE: “On Deck: Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers,” Hope Street Group (March 2016).

Andrew Scanlan was a research and policy associate at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Growing up in Ireland, he graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. in European Studies before spending two years living in Honduras working as a second grade classroom teacher and school administrator for Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA). Following this, he earned an M.A. in International…

View Full Bio

Sign Up to Receive Fordham Updates

We'll send you quality research, commentary, analysis, and news on the education issues you care about.
Thank you for signing up!
Please check your email to confirm the subscription.
Fordham Logo

© 2020 The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Privacy Policy
Usage Agreement

National

1016 16th St NW, 8th Floor 
Washington, DC 20036

202.223.5452

[email protected]

  • <
Ohio

P.O. Box 82291
Columbus, OH 43202

614.223.1580

[email protected]

Sponsorship

130 West Second Street, Suite 410
Dayton, Ohio 45402

937.227.3368

[email protected]