September 20, 2018
For the past two years, we have facilitated a community of practice (CoP) of five teacher preparation technical assistance centers–Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, National Center for Teacher Residencies, TeacherSquared, TeachingWorks and University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Prep–working to reimagine the way teachers are prepared for the classroom. They support teacher preparation programs in their networks with technical assistance, tools and resources aligned to four key quality objectives:
- Building the capacity of teacher candidates through practice opportunities;
- Using data to improve the quality of programming over times;
- Developing and supporting effective teacher educators; and
- Partnering with K-12 school systems and the communities they serve.
In close collaboration with the Centers, we’ve curated the very best tools and resources created by Centers and sorted them into a set of toolkits, each focusing on one of the four key objectives listed above.
Teacher preparation program staff and other audiences can use these toolkits to improve their programming and offer high-impact learning experiences to teacher candidates. Policymakers, for example, can view and download sample surveys to collect data from teacher prep stakeholders. Mentor teachers can access videos that they can use to model effective teaching practices for preservice teachers. And teacher prep program staff can view protocols and videos to help them build mutually beneficial partnerships with school districts.
We invite you to peruse the toolkits, share them with your network, and use the tools and resources in your own work to reimagine teacher prep. You can access additional resources related to teacher preparation on our online library, including a three-part series of briefs describing the work of the five Centers.
