Growing Teachers from Within: Implementation, Impact, and Cost of an Alternative Teacher Preparation Program in Three Urban School Districts

Abstract

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Changing the Composition of Beginning Teachers: The Role of State Alternative Certification Policies

“…This increase was driven by an increase in the fraction of Black and other race teachers in a state (i.e., Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian). This finding adds to the emerging evidence of policies which can help to recruit a more racially diverse teacher workforce (DuBois & Schanzenbach, 2017;Gist et al, 2019;Kaufman et al, 2020).…”

Attrition and Turnover Among Beginning Teachers in Texas by Preparation Program

“…Furthermore, the group tends to have a wider age range (e.g., Goldhaber & Cowan, 2014; Redding & Smith, 2016; Yin & Partelow, 2020). These demographic characteristics may reflect that some local non-TCPs are often created explicitly to diversify the teacher workforce (e.g., Johnson et al, 2005; Kaufman et al, 2020).…”

Are Homegrown Teachers Who Graduate From Urban Districts More Racially Diverse, More Effective, and Less Likely to Exit Teaching?

“…In districts with sharp discrepancies in the relative share of students and teachers of color, incorporating information into hiring procedures on whether or not an applicant is a district graduate may be one strategy to increase racial diversity among the district's teacher workforce. While such a step may be relatively straightforward, more intensive recruitment and training efforts aimed at recruiting local community members may be cost prohibitive for many school districts (Kaufman et al, 2020). Future research can examine how changes in district policy and practice around the recruitment of district graduates result in meaningful changes in the diversity, quality, and stability of the teacher workforce.…”

“…An emerging approach for addressing staffing challenges in large urban school districts has been to develop local teacher preparation programs. Kaufman et al’s (2020) evaluation of TNTP's TEACh program in three urban districts finds that these programs helped increase the overall supply of new teachers and recruit more teachers of color and teachers in hard–to–staff positions. Yet, with the exception of mathematics in program participants first year, teachers in the TEACh program were no more effective than comparison teachers in their respective districts.…”

“…Research on this topic is needed for two main reasons. First, renewed interest in the potential benefits of local teacher recruitment efforts and persistent shortages in hard–to–staff positions and schools have led an increasing number of districts to adopt local teacher preparation programs (Gist, 2022; Kaufman et al, 2020). Many of these programs are oriented around the recruitment of local teacher candidates, with some programs even designed to recruit high school students into teaching (Bianco et al, 2011; Noonoo, 2019; Simmons, 2018; Villagómez et al, 2016).…”