In 2000, the National Reading Panel report identified five essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Yet a new study of university-based teacher preparation programs finds that few cover these components, leaving teachers without research-based expertise. (Contains 2…

This report provides information on the preparation provided to teacher candidates from teacher training programs so that they can fully use assessment data to improve classroom instruction. It follows a similar shorter report the authors released in March 2012. In this newest report, the authors have significantly expanded their initial sampling…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality evaluates key features of 67 undergraduate institutions elementary, secondary and special education teacher preparation in the state of Texas. The authors apply 25 standards that bear directly on the capacity of those programs to attract talented individuals and prepare them to teach…

In this second study of education schools, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) examines the mathematics preparation of America's elementary teachers. The impetus is the mediocre performance of American students in mathematics compared with their counterparts around the world. Mathematics relies heavily on cumulative knowledge. The link…

The nation's higher goals for student learning in mathematics cannot be reached without improved teacher capacity. To accomplish these goals an analysis of current teacher preparation in mathematics is necessary, along with the development of an agenda for improvement. Based on groundwork laid during a meeting in Washington, D.C. in March 2007,…

In recent years, the debate over teacher quality and preparation has gained new urgency. Competing groups of partisans have dominated this debate: one seemingly eager to assail the nation's education schools and to suggest that there is an insufficiently defined body of professional teaching knowledge, the other committed to advancing…

The persistent reading struggles and failure of nearly 40 percent of all American children, little improved over time, has led to aggressive government-funded efforts in school districts to train veteran teachers in the science of reading. The accumulated scientific findings of nearly 60 years of research gained the nation's attention with the…