Strong teacher preparation ensures that teachers enter classrooms ready to excel, create engaging learning environments, boost student achievement, and set up future generations for success.
Strong Teachers Start with Strong Preparation
Effective teachers are the most important in-school factor for improving student learning,1 and every student deserves a teacher who can help them reach their full potential. For that to happen, all aspiring teachers need high-quality preparation.
While some programs rigorously train candidates in evidence-based instructional methods and provide robust clinical practice experiences, others fail to equip new teachers with essential skills for classroom success. This inconsistency primarily impacts historically marginalized students, who are most often assigned underprepared or inexperienced teachers.
By holding prep programs accountable, we can help ensure all aspiring teachers receive sufficient training to become classroom-ready. Excellence in teacher preparation isn’t just an aspiration—it’s already happening in programs nationwide. These programs show us what’s possible when preparation is done right: New teachers enter classrooms confident and competent, ready to support every student’s success.
More than 1.3 million fourth graders can’t read at a basic level, despite reading being crucial for success and equity. Explore the extent to which over 700 teacher preparation programs prepare aspiring teachers to teach children to read, and learn about programs that are getting it right.
Since 2006, NCTQ has asked: Which elements of teacher prep most impact teacher effectiveness? Which programs are leading the way in preparing teachers for the classroom?
Through our Teacher Prep Review, we evaluate elementary prep programs, identifying best practices and recommending improvements to strengthen teacher preparation.
Just as a strong curriculum supports student learning, the course materials used in teacher prep programs help ensure aspiring teachers are set on the right path. View expert reviews of over 1,000 instructional resources used in teacher prep reading courses.
Which institutions successfully prepare and produce classroom-ready teachers, regardless of candidates’ resources or institutions’ selectivity? Where do institutions need to provide more support?
Driven by Data: Using licensure tests to build a strong, diverse teacher workforce
Long-hidden data on institutional pass rates for elementary content teacher licensure tests serves as a compass, pointing toward strengths and opportunities in preparing aspiring elementary teachers for success in the classroom.
Are aspiring teachers passing these tests on their first try? What about aspiring teachers of color?
As a reading teacher, I wasn’t prepared to help kids like Kaeden; I am now
May 23, 2024
Kristyn Kahalehoe
Endnotes
Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633–2679.
