Highlights from Tennessee's 2011 Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs

For a fourth straight year, Tennessee has released a report card on the performance of the state's teacher preparation programs.  It compares the value-added achievement gains of the K-12 students who were taught by program graduates with three years of experience or less.

The Education Consumers Foundation has created graphics that enable easy comparison of the larger programs in areas of reading and math instruction, as well as a composite chart.

The primary findings are as follows:

• Virtually all programs are graduating some teachers who perform at the level of the least effective teachers in the state.
• The quality control exercised by a few programs is noticeably worse:  Up to one-third of their recent graduates are in the bottom 20% of teachers statewide. 
• At least one program, Teach for America (TFA), is doing a noticeably better job of both screening out low performers and cultivating top performers.

Could less be more?

TFA is known for its selective recruitment but it also seems to be unusually efficient in turning talented individuals into effective instructors.

TFA recruits college graduates.  Unlike students enrolled in traditional university-based teacher training programs, TFA teachers undergo an intensive one-summer training experience that is focused on the tools and practical steps necessary to produce student achievement.  These include working with students, parents, and colleagues (see Developing Teachers as Leaders by Jeff Wetzler, Change, November/December 2010).  Notably, the TFA training is heavily focused on producing results. 

In contrast to the TFA approach, traditional teacher training exposes teachers to a wide range of concepts and practices, and it encourages them to develop a style that fits their personal and intellectual attributes (see Developing a Teaching Style: Methods for Elementary School Teachers, Second Edition by Robert D. Louisell and  Jorge Descamps).  Indeed, this difference in focus could be a key to TFA's extraordinary success.  TFA teachers are taught to focus on outcomes, first and foremost.  Practices based on theory or ones that simply appeal to teacher preferences are considered only if they are found to produce student achievement gains.

Apparently, TFA's approach rules out faddish and ineffective teaching virtually before it is introduced to the classroom.