The gateway to the profession: Assessing teacher preparation programs based on student achievement

With teacher quality repeatedly cited as the most important schooling factor influencing student achievement, there has been increased interest in examining the efficacy of teacher training programs. This paper presents the results of research investigating the relationship between teachers who graduate from different training programs and student achievement on state reading and math tests. Using a novel methodology that allows teacher training effects to decay, we find that training institution indicators explain a statistically significant portion of the variation in student achievement in reading, but not in math. Moreover, there is evidence that graduates from some specific training programs are differentially effective at teaching reading than the average teacher trained out-of-state and that these differences are large enough to be educationally meaningful.

► We model the correlation between teacher training programs and student achievement. ► Our methodology allows teacher training effects to decay over time. ► Few programs in Washington State can be distinguished from each other. ► However, some differences between programs are educationally meaningful.