What should teachers know, be able to do, and care about?
Differing opinions about the purpose of schooling make it difficult to resolve those fundamental questions about teacher capacity, yet doing so is vital to teacher education programs. Once teacher preparation programs establish what teachers should know, be able to do, and care about, teacher educators can instruct prospective teachers accordingly. Without clear goals, teacher educators would be at a loss to determine how to accomplish their mission. The dynamic nature of schooling challenges those in the teacher preparation business to stay relevant and current. One approach toward more effective teacher preparation involves tracking the performance of the K-12 students of graduates of teacher preparation programs. One step toward implementing such an approach is documented in my work with collaborators.
Henry, G. T., Campbell, S. L., Thompson, C. L., Patriarca, L. A., Luterbach, K. J., Lys, D. B., Martin Covington, V. (2013). The Predictive Validity of Measures of Teacher Candidate Programs and Performance: Toward an Evidence-Based Approach to Teacher Preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 64 (5), 439-453.