Community Colleges and Teacher Preparation

The role of community colleges in preparing the next generation of teachers in U.S. classrooms continues to evolve. A new ECS Issue Paper, Community Colleges and Teacher Preparation: Roles, Issues and Opportunities, articulates how community colleges are well positioned to provide the customized programs and strategies that are needed to meet regional workforce needs and positively impact the field of teacher education.

Institutional Research and the Culture of Evidence at Community Colleges

Accreditation teams are telling community colleges that their capacity for institutional research (IR) and assessment of learning needs to be improved. State governments are also increasing demands on colleges for data, particularly as part of performance accountability systems. Institutional Research and the Culture of Evidence at Community Colleges presents findings from a study conducted by the Community College Research Center about how well prepared today’s community colleges are in moving toward the greater use of data and research to improve student success. The study finds that community colleges wanting to expand the role of IR face several challenges in terms of resources, data collection, and institutional priorities. It also indicates that college leadership is a key component in promoting the expansion of IR capacity and changes in organizational practice that will move institutions toward greater use of data to improve institutional performance.

Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Math and Science Teachers

A new Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) report, An American Imperative: Transforming the Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Our Nation's Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce, addresses the critical shortage of high quality mathematics and science teachers, the lack of which threatens the strength, innovation, and productivity of America's economy. The report proposes a comprehensive action plan to elevate the status of the teaching profession and focuses on transforming three key components that contribute to a robust, world-class teaching workforce: recruitment, retention, and renewal. In order for thecoordinated reform effort to succeed, BHEF believes the federal government, state governments, school districts, higher education, and business and foundations have a key role to play.

Career Changers Choose Teaching

According to the U.S. Department of Education, twenty percent of today's teaching force is made up of novice teachers from "alternative route programs". Such alternative certification routes offer programs that can be completed in one to three years, and are often specifically designed to fill shortages in specific subject areas, such as mathematics, science, special education, and English as a Second Language. Because alternative route programs all recognize earlier academic preparation and life experience, professionals attracted to teaching don't have to start all over again. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Information (2005), nearly half of those entering teaching through alternative routes say they would not have become a teacher if the option had not been available.

National Council on Teacher Quality

The State Teacher Policy Yearbook examines state board of education or profession standards board approved regulations, and laws passed by state legislatures, that influence the teaching profession. The report provides an unprecedented analysis of each state's full range of teacher policies, measures policies against a realistic blueprint for reform, and identifies key areas of states' teacher policies in urgent need of policy attention.

Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States

A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s FPG Child Development Institute provides a detailed national picture of early childhood teacher preparation programs. Forty-five state reports provide basic information about programs, faculty, and students of early childhood teacher preparation programs. The national report updates the groundbreaking 1999 National Center for Early Development & Learning study, which provided the first nationally representative data on the goals, capacity, supports and challenges of early childhood teacher preparation programs.