Report makes recommendations to improve the ranks of the teaching profession through support of innovative practice-based teacher preparation programs.

(Cambridge, MA) – As Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls for major reforms to the nation’s teacher preparation programs, a report issued by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy highlights the role that innovative practice-based teacher preparation programs play in improving the ranks of the teaching profession in Massachusetts.

Secretary Duncan has recently issued a clarion call to Americans to become teachers. As Duncan explains, “put plain and simple, this country needs an army of great, new teachers.” He explicitly appeals to college students, professionals rethinking their careers, military veterans, retirees and others who may not have ever considered becoming a teacher.

Given this national call to action, along with an unemployment rate approaching ten percent, the Rennie Center’s report, Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts, promotes practice-based teacher preparation programs as a means for attracting highly qualified professionals as well as recent college graduates with degrees in high need subject areas like mathematics and science to consider a career in teaching. Practice-based teacher preparation programs offer a compelling option for out-of-work professionals because they provide a faster timeline for earning a teaching credential at a lower cost than that of a traditional four-year degree in teaching.

In light of the current and projected shortage of teachers in Massachusetts and the number of educators not licensed in the area in which they are teaching (about 5% of the state’s teacher workforce with a disproportionately high percentage in high-poverty school districts), the Rennie Center urges state policymakers to identify schools and districts with the greatest staffing needs and provide incentives to nearby colleges and universities to develop targeted teacher training programs that address these staffing deficits.

The report also provides a series of considerations and next steps, including a recommendation to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to proactively market practice-based programs as a viable route to entering the teaching profession in order to attract mid-career professionals and increase the pool of qualified applicants. A larger and more diverse applicant pool would enable preparation programs to better meet the needs of districts and enable all programs to be much more selective.

The Rennie Center report describes the evolution of alternative teacher preparation programs nationally and in Massachusetts, and highlights the characteristics shared by practice-based programs across the Commonwealth. The report lays the groundwork necessary for further research into the effectiveness of these programs and for a discussion of practice-based teacher preparation programs as a potential catalyst for the reform of traditional university-based teacher education.

The Rennie Center report was produced with support from the Trefler Foundation and was released at a public event on November 19, 2009. Keynote speaker Arthur Levine, President of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and former President and Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University noted that through this report, “the Trefler Foundation and the Rennie Center offer us a design for teacher education. Let’s imagine it – not simply as a pilot, but taking it to scale across the state.”

To read the full report, click here.

About the Rennie Center: The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy is an independent, non-partisan education policy think tank whose mission is to develop a public agenda that informs and promotes significant improvement of public education in Massachusetts. We conduct research and host convenings on relevant education reform topics. Please visit our web site for more information: www.renniecenter.org.