CEUs / Advanced Degrees

Teacher preparation began in the mid-19th century with the normal school, a 2-year course of study that prepared candidates for teaching. This model remained unchanged until the early 20th century, when universities created the undergraduate model, which currently predominates.

The purpose of this overview is to provide an understanding of the research base on professional development and its impact on student achievement, as well as offer recommendations for future teacher professional development.

This report presents selected findings from the school principal data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS).  It provides the following descriptive information on school principals by school type, student characteristics, and other relevant categories: number, race/ethnicity, age, gender, college degrees, salary, hours worked, focus of work, years experience, and tenure at current school.

This article attempts an analysis of the accumulated literature on collegial relations with the intent of formulating a more robust conception, one that accounts for variation in teachers’ involvements with one another, the circumstances that surround those involvements, the meanings teachers and others attach to them, and the consequences that flow from them.

This paper attempts to examine the various aspects of the discussion method of teaching at university and its role in enhancing students’ linguistic and academic skills as well as its shortcomings. In Oman, research on English language teaching at universities and colleges show that a considerable number of students who move from secondary schools and join higher education institutions would confront difficulties in using the English language to meet their personal, social, academic, and career needs efficiently and appropriately.

The authors examined the effects of six types of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth over 4 years using statewide longitudinal survey data collected from 467 middle school mathematics teachers in 91 schools merged with 11,192 middle school students' mathematics scores in a standardized assessment in Missouri. 

This essay suggests potential research avenues in the area of technology-mediated learning. It seeks to motivate greater depth of research into the question of how technology enhances learning. 

The work of the New Teacher Center (NTC) highlights the importance of the conditions for success in its Program Theory of Action model. This paper also provides Conditions for Success Self-Evaluation Worksheet that will help you to evaluate your program’s readiness to effectively implement the Teacher Induction Pathway presented in the Adult Education Teacher Induction Toolkit. 

This Research & Policy Brief addresses the aspect of the teacher support system that is perhaps the most important and often the most weakly implemented: teacher learning and development.

This study examined results associated with a field-based undergraduate early childhood teacher education program designed as a response to calls for enhanced field experiences and community-situated teacher education that narrows the preparation-to-practice gap.

Researchers at Learning Sciences International wanted to take a closer look at the impact PLCs have on the schools we work with. We hoped to tease out answers to two related questions about PLCs. When PLCs are working at optimum levels, what is their relationship to student achievement? Secondly, do cohesive and focused high-functioning PLCs have any impact on teacher morale?

This study examines the impact of a nationally disseminated professional development program, Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI), on teachers' specialized knowledge for teaching mathematics and illustrates how such research could be conducted.

As part of a federally funded study of NCLB, RAND Corporation researchers, in collaboration with researchers from the American Institutes for Research, analyzed the progress that states, districts, and schools have made in implementing the teacher qualification provisions of NCLB through the 2004–2005 school year. 

The Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary School Principals in the United States is a subsection of the NCES 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). It provides descriptive statistics on K-12 school principals in areas such as: race, gender, education level, salary, experience, and working conditions.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) was awarded a grant from the
National Science Foundation to conduct a meta analysis study with the goal of providing
state and local education leaders with scientifically-based evidence regarding the effects of
teacher professional development on improving student learning. 

Teacher professional development is essential to efforts to improve our schools. This article maps the terrain of research on this important topic. It first provides an overview of what we have learned as a field, about effective professional development programs and their impact on teacher learning. 

CEELO reviewed data on 21 states’ principal licensure requirements, conducted structured interviews with experts on principal preparation and professional development in 7 states, and spoke with staff at the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Institute for School Leadership.

Using data from a large urban school district, this article tests the impact of structural, human, and social factors on the emergence of school-based professional community and examines the extent to which such developments in turn promote learning and experimentation among faculty

This document includes the excerpts of five articles that provide a substantial evidence-based argument for the power of collaborative communities to improve teaching and learning. 

This report provides a first look at students' persistence, retention, and attainment over 6 years, showing the rates at which students had completed postsecondary credentials, the rates at which they had persisted through or left postsecondary education without earning any credential as of spring 2017, and the rates at which they remained in the first institution in which they were enrolled. Postsecondary graduation rates in public institutions have stayed virtually the same for seven years, with 57% of students graduating in 2011 and 59% in 2017.  Private non-profit institutions remained at 65-66% graduation for the first six years, increasing by 8 percentage points in 2017.  Private for-profit institutions fared the worst, decreasing consistently from 42% in 2011 to 14% in 2017.  

The purpose of this overview is to provide an understanding of the research base on professional development and its impact on student achievement, as well as offer recommendations for future teacher professional development.

This book synthesizes and assesses existing research on teacher education, as well as
providing a rigorous and even-handed analysis of the weight of the evidence about the
impact of teacher education and pre-service education.

This study aimed to look into this by asking, “Which features of high quality online professional development were noted by participating educators in a statewide online teacher professional development program?” A survey was used to collect educators’ voices in this FIP professional development (PD) program.

The study compares the effectiveness of different routes to teaching. It finds there is no significant difference in the effectiveness of teachers who were traditionally trained when compared to teachers who obtained training through alternative credential programs.

Research shows how schools can create more powerful professional development experiences.

This paper discusses best practices in teachers’ professional development (PD) in the United States (U.S.).

This study employed a randomized experiment to examine differences in teacher and student learning from professional development (PD) in two modalities: online and face-to-face. 

This study examines the influence of administrator credential programs, on-the-job experiences, and the standards in the development of urban public school principals.

This study uses a national probability sample of 1,027 mathematics and science teachers to provide the first large-scale empirical comparison of effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers' learning.

The purpose of this preliminary report is examine the most recent data on the cost of sending students to college in the Unities States.

In this paper, we describe the results of the first large-scale study, based on a unique data set from North Carolina, assessing the relationship between the certification of teachers by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and elementary level student achievement

The authors use their experience with a professional development project to propose a model of teacher community in the workplace. They describe a project that brought together 22 English and social studies teachers (and a special education and ESL teacher) from an urban high school over a period of 2 1/2 years.

This article reviews U.S. administrative licensure regulations, focusing on type of school leader licensure, provider types, and leadership quality. Licensure obtained through university-based and alternative routes is examined.

The authors study the effects of various types of education and training on the ability of teachers to promote student achievement.

Is a popular innovation for increasing human capital in the teaching profession—competitive college scholarships for teachers—effective? 

This report provides descriptive information on traditional public, charter, and private school principals over the period of 1987-88 through 2011-12. It includes comparative data on number of principals, gender, race/ethnicity, age, advance degrees, principal experience, teaching experience, salaries, hours worked, focus of work, experience and tenure at current schools, etc.

The authors report an investigation of a five-step structured study-group approach to promoting a self-sustaining learning community that supports teachers in developing the ‘habits of mind’ necessary for improving literacy acquisition and development for urban African American students attending a low-performing, high-poverty elementary school. 

This paper defines and describes what is meant by "professional learning community"; describes what happens when a school staff studies, works, plans, and takes action collectively on behalf of increased learning for students; and discusses what is known about creating such communities of professionals in schools.

This paper presents case study research that explores the dynamics and experience offered for a professor and learners participating in a hybrid-modeled classroom in teacher education. 

ESSA got rid of the requirement in the law it replaced, the No Child Left Behind Act, that teachers must be highly qualified, which typically meant they needed to have a bachelor’s degree in the subject they are teaching and state certification. Instead, states must come up with their own definition of an “effective teacher.”

The authors introduce Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) as a way of representing what teachers need to know about technology and argue for the role of authentic design-based activities in the development of this knowledge.

Starting in independent professional schools 150 years ago, teacher education in the United States ended up in universities. This was not the result of a plan to enhance the quality of professional education for teachers. Instead, it was a side effect of the growing dominance of the university over all matters educational, which meant that teacher education, like other professional domains, had no other place to go.

In trying to improve American public schools, educators, policymakers, and philanthropists are overselling the role of the highly skilled individual teacher and undervaluing the benefits that come from teacher collaborations that strengthen skills, competence, and a school’s overall social capital.

In this paper we examine social capital and its relationship with performance at the organizational level.

This paper focuses on two questions: (a) What patterns in certification currently exist across the states? and (b) What might these current patterns indicate for the future of school principal certification?

This study examines the Noyce Program, which provides scholarships for STEM majors in return for teaching in high need schools. Implications for teacher education programs include that recruitment strategies should identify candidates who are committed to teaching in high need schools and programs should provide experiences to encourage this commitment not just to become certified.

This paper draws on intensive case studies of teacher knowledge, practice, and learning among teachers of mathematics and English in two high schools to take up the problem of how classroom teaching practice comes to be known, shared, and developed among teachers through their out-of-classroom interactions.

This paper reports findings of a study that is grounded in the assumption that the ways in which teachers interact outside their classrooms may be critical to the future of school restructuring and the effects of restructuring on students.

This study investigated the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards'(NBPTS)
assessment process in order to identify, quantify, and substantiate learning outcomes from
the participants.

This publication seeks to help answer those questions by bringing together findings from four reports commissioned by The Wallace Foundation to inform its development of a potential new initiative regarding university-based principal training.

Th is publication is an eff ort to answer basic questions and to inform and engage more people in strengthening the quality and improving the results of professional development.

Data through 1995 are for institutions of higher education, while later data are for degree-granting institutions. Degree-granting institutions grant associate’s or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The degree-granting classification is very similar to the earlier higher education classification, but it includes more 2-year colleges and excludes a few higher education institutions that did not grant degrees. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.

National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education presents the data of public school teachers who held a postbaccalaureate degree, public school teachers who held the certificate, and the year of experience.

The book recommends that federal and state policy makers take on the responsibility of promoting equal access to technology while the federal government and foundations play an important role by supporting the development, evaluation, and revision of OTPD.

NTC's most recent report explores: 1) The impact on teacher retention rates, 2) Expected months of additional learning for students and potential of lifetime earnings, 3) Districts' expected savings on this investment. 4) Long-term economic impact of students and in their communities.

This article focuses on the response of one urban middle school to a major school reform initiative.

This study examined the influence of three year-long cohorts of elementary school teachers' participating in a learner-centered mathematics professional development program.

This Statistics in Brief provides a snapshot of the state of teacher professional development activities among U.S. public school teachers using data collected through the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) Public School Teacher Questionnaire.

This study examines how mathematics and science teachers' classroom assessment
practices were affected by the National Board Certification process.

High teacher turnover imposes numerous burdens on the schools and districts from which teachers depart. Some of these burdens are explicit and take the form of recruiting, hiring, and training costs. Others are more hidden and take the form of changes to the composition and quality of the teaching staff. This study focuses on the latter. 

This 3-year study examined the dynamics of school culture in 3 elementary schools that
have beaten the odds in improving low-income and minority student achievement.

The National Teacher and Principal Survey is completed every four years soliciting descriptive information from principals and teachers across the 50 states. A few highlights include: Sixty percent of school principals have been at their schools for three years or less. 

The authors recommend a shift in focus for TFA from a program of mixed impact to one that makes measureable changes in the quality of education in America. Recommendations for policymakers and districts are provided.

After an overview of the characteristics of professional learning communities (PLCs), this manuscript presents a review of 10 American studies and one English study on the impact of PLCs on teaching practices and student learning.

Bloomberg has published an interactive graphic that reveals valuable information on the probability of a particular employment path being impacted by automation. The graphic also provides information on average annual wage, number of people employed in the sector, and academic degree required for the job. This data is especially important as schools consider models for preparing students’ future careers. As schools are increasingly held accountable for career preparation, how can educators use this data to create career pathways that will adequately equip students with the skills and knowledge required for well-paying jobs obtainable when they graduate?

Providing alternative routes to teacher certification is an approach to recruit teachers. A definition of alternative teacher certification is provided, followed by a summary of the research on this strategy, state policy examples and considerations for policymakers.