Data Mining -> Staff Factors -> Four vs. Five Years in Credentialing

What does current research tell us about the effect of 4 and 5 year teacher preparation programs on the quality of teachers and student achievement?

Why is this question important? The practice of increasing the teacher preparation programs from four to five years has resulted in increased costs to the education of teachers as well as reduce the number of qualified teachers. Given these added burdens to the system, do the benefits of the added year outweigh the cost?

See further discussion below.

Source: Studying Teacher Education - Chapter 11, Teacher Education Programs

Authors: Kenneth Zeichner and Hilary Conklin

Published: Studying Teacher Education - Chapter 11, Teacher Education Programs, 2005

Results: The five-year credential program model is a relatively modern concept that gained momentum in the 1960’s. By the mid-1980’s organizations such as the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and The Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy were actively advocating for five-year programs as a solution to unsatisfactory student achievement. Despite a lack of research on the topic, many teacher preparation programs, including the State of California, adopted the practice. It has been estimated that upwards of 25% of American teachers receive credentials from post-baccalaureate programs.

To date the most extensive research on the effectiveness of five and four year credential teacher programs has been conducted by Andrew 1990 and Andrew and Schwab 1995. These two studies reached similar findings. Unfortunately, this research did not examine student achievement or directly observe teacher performance relying on less useful criteria and less rigorous methods such as surveys.

Andrew and Schwab found that five-year programs indicated better success for the selected effectiveness criteria used in the studies. The criteria they used were; academic qualifications; self rating of the teacher's preparation program; ratings of the teachers by supervisors; the number of teachers who went on to actually enter the field; retention; teacher satisfaction; and teacher knowledge of the field are only indirect indicators of teacher effectiveness.  They determined from the self-reports that there was evidence that favored 5 year programs over 4 year programs. The information indicated that teachers from 5 year programs remained in teaching longer, had greater confidence in their teaching skills, ranked their programs as better at preparing them for the classroom, and lead to confidence in the teachers ability to be a leader. Even the information relating to leadership was inconclusive as it was contradicted by the reports from principals. When principals assessed teacher competence and leadership four and five years teachers were rated virtually the same.

Implications: The take home message is, without examining student achievement current research of the effectiveness of 4 and 5-year programs cannot answer the important question, do the benefits of 5 year credential programs outweigh the cost?  New studies should be conducted comparing teachers from each type of program and student's achievement. These new studies need to employ rigorous research methods that can provide greater confidence regarding the results and conclusions of the research.

Study Description: 1. Studying Teacher Education - Chapter 11, Teacher Education Program: A report of The American Education Research Association (AERA) on  Research and Teacher Education 2. Andrew and Schwab 1995: Has reform in teacher education influenced teacher performance? An outcome assessment of graduates of eleven eleven-university consortium. Graduates of the University of New Hampshire, 5 year and 4 year programs over 10 years, various grade levels as well as subject content were assessed to determine effectiveness. Effectiveness was determined based upon yearly evaluation questionnaires - retention, satisfaction, evaluation of their preparation programs, and principal evaluations

Citation:
Andrew, M., & Schwab, R. L. (1995). Has reform in teacher education influenced teacher performance? An outcome assessment of graduates of eleven teacher education programs. Action in Teacher Education, 17(3), 43-53.

Zeichner, K. M., & Conklin, H. G. (2005). Teachers education programs. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. M. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teachers education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.