‘Playbook’ Offers Roadmap for State Policy to Transform Educator Preparation
This week, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released Transforming Educator Preparation: Lessons Learned From Leading States, a playbook for how states can improve educator preparation based on the experience of the Network for Transforming Educator Preparation (NTEP).
States that participated in NTEP – a multiyear effort to identify policies that effectively support the preparation of profession-ready teachers – were California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington.
These states sought to “move the needle” on the 10 recommendations from the 2012 report Our Responsibility, Our Promise, focused on three policy levers: raising the bar for teacher preparation through licensure reform, strengthening standards for program evaluation and approval, and using data to measure success and continous improvement.
In each NTEP state, AACTE members played a key role in achieving their state’s goals. For example, the California State University Center for Teacher Quality now administers surveys to program completers and employers as part of its work to evaluate and report on program quality. The report praises many members – including Clemson University (SC), Lipscomb University (TN), Louisiana Tech University, Mercer University (GA), Missouri State University, Southern Connecticut State University, University of Central Oklahoma, Utah Valley University, and Wilmington University (DE) – for their work in revamping their programs’ clinical experience, PK-12 partnerships, and data usage through NTEP activities.
The report also recommends that state education agencies take a series of steps to succeed in transforming educator preparation, including –
- Involving partners, giving them clear roles
- Keeping students’ work front and center
- Understanding the local policy landscape and making sure to involve all of the agencies and actors involved in educator preparation
Download the full report here.
Tags: school-university partnerships, state policy
