March 23, 2006 Mike Hudson, President National Center for Educational Accountability mikehudsonjust4

1
March 23, 2006Mike Hudson, PresidentNational
Center for Educational Accountabilitymikehudson_at_j
ust4kids.org www.nc4ea.orgwww.just4kids.org

• Connecting Teacher Education to Student
  Achievement
• TPERF Education Summit

2
NCEA Sponsoring Organizations
3
No Child Left Behind

• Each State shall develop a plan to ensure that
  all teachers teaching in core academic subjects
  within the State
• are highly qualified.

4
NCEA Guiding Principles

• Without data, youre just another
• person educator
• with an opinion.
• Data should be used as a flashlight, not as a
  hammer. It is only the first step in the Just
  for the Kids School Improvement Service.

5
The Study

• Connecting Teacher Education to Student
  Achievement
• The University of Texas System (UT System)
• Assessment of Nine Teacher Preparation
• Programs
• Funded by the Houston Endowment
• In cooperation with the
• Texas Education Agency

6
The UTS Assessment of Teacher Preparation Programs

• A 4½ year longitudinal project through 2007
• Analyze data on academic growth of students in
  the classrooms of teachers who have recently
  graduated from UT institutions
• Identify more effective programs, while
  controlling for available relevant variables
• Study differences between relatively more and
  less effective programs
• Share results to provide feedback for all UT
  System teacher preparation programs

7
Data Collection

• Year One
• Student-teacher matches from 51 school districts
  (projected 50 of graduates) (number increased
  to 64 in Year Two)
• Demographic and test score data for each matched
  student from the state education agency
• Test data covers current and two prior years
• Certification data from the state teacher
  certification agency
• All records matched by unique encrypted student
  and teacher identifiers created for the study

8
Year One Predicted Data Texas School Districts,
Students Teachers

• Cohort originally identified by State Board for
  Educator Certification which predicted
• 4,134 UT System newly certified graduates in
  2002-2003 teaching in Texas Public Schools in
  2003-2004
• 2,607 UT System newly certified graduates in 51
  participating school districts
• 829 UT System newly certified graduates in 51
  participating school districts teaching
  Reading/English Language Arts or Math in K-12

9
Year One Actual Data Texas School Districts,
Students Teachers

• Actual data submitted by 51 participating school
  districts
• 904 UT System newly certified graduates
• 651 (79 of SBEC expected 829) UT System
  graduates teaching Reading/English Language Arts
  or Math in K-12
• 636 UT System graduates teaching Reading/English
  Language Arts or Math in 4-11
• 532 UT System graduates teaching Reading/English
  Language Arts or Math in grades 4-8
• Analysis includes only these graduates as they
  teach subjects measured by a statewide test at
  grade level

10
Statistical Analysis

• Quantitative Analysis-HLM Models
• Goal Distinguish between teacher preparation
  programs and other available predictors of
  teacher effectiveness
• Outcome Identify programs that have a consistent
  and systematic positive impact on their
  graduates teaching effectiveness

11
Year One Data Analysis

• Exploratory Analysis in Year One used to
  fine-tune models and methodology
• Challenges in Year One Analysis
• More data (teachers districts) needed to
  disaggregate UT System graduates across
  institutions, certification types and grades
• Transcript data for UT System graduates available
  starting in Year Two Control for other
  variables
• Initial analysis is promising and indicates
  differences among teachers from the nine
  institutions

12
Differences in Relative Effectiveness of
Graduates from U.T. Teacher Preparation Programs
Based on Student Academic Growth
13
Next Steps

• Add UT System teacher transcript data
• Enlarge district and teacher pool
• Analyze math and reading/language arts with two
  years of data
• Identify programs having positive impact on
  teacher effectiveness

14
Next Steps Continued

• 5. Repeat (1-3) for Years Three and Four once
  participating districts have been identified and
  their data have been submitted to TEA
• 6. Investigate robustness of findings across
  years
• 7. Conduct qualitative study to differentiate
  practices between more and less effective
  institutions
• 8. Use data to promote continuing improvement of
  all UT System teacher preparation programs

15
Future Goals

• Include all Texas teacher preparation programs in
  analysis
• Including alternative certification programs
• Engage other states in examining their teacher
  preparation programs

16
Data Quality Campaign
17
State Policy Implications

• Texas should require a student-to-teacher data
  link within the state data system item 5
• Texas should encourage research access to
  data--Build support for longitudinal research
  projects
• Other states should begin evaluation of teacher
  preparation programs linked to student achievement

18
NCEA UT System Study

• This study will be on our website soon
• www.just4kids.org
• www.DataQualityCampaign.org
• Contacts
• vbrinson_at_mail.utexas.edu
• mlummus_at_mail.utexas.edu