Educator Quality Resources

Investments in teacher and leader preparation advance equity in the high-need communities where schools are often staffed by a revolving door of underprepared and inexperienced teachers. At this briefing, speakers discussed approaches to teacher and leader preparation that are effective in addressing these challenges, such as high-quality residency programs and Grow Your Own models.

In this webinar, co-hosted by the Learning Policy Institute and the National Urban League, we shared strategies that advocates and policymakers are using to tackle teacher shortages that disproportionately impact underserved communities.

Effective professional development has the potential to support sophisticated forms of teaching that develop student knowledge and skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and self-direction. The Learning Policy Institute, the American Federation of Teachers, Learning Forward, and the National Education Association held an event showcasing innovative models of teacher-led learning and professional development that can transform schools into spaces where teachers are driving improvement through their own learning and leadership.

Teachers of color help close achievement gaps for students of color, particularly in high-poverty environments, and all students benefit from having teachers of color. Unfortunately, although more teachers of color are being recruited across the nation, there are growing gaps between the demand for such teachers and the supply. This Washington, DC, briefing examined the federal and state policies that support a well-prepared and diverse teacher workforce.

Decades of research make it clear that social and emotional habits and skills are intimately related to academic learning and life success. However, educator preparation and training do not always provide teachers with effective strategies to support social and emotional learning. This webinar looked at the benefits and challenges of integrating social, emotional, and academic learning in the classroom and explored strategies to inform practice.

How can social and emotional learning and cultural competence be integrated into educator preparation programs? Expert researchers and policymakers discussed this question in this webinar, with the goal of equipping teachers to consider the needs of the whole child with equity in mind.

Today’s schools must provide powerful learning environments for students that pair challenging academic content with engaging, experiential, and relevant learning experiences—and must do so in ways that reach diverse learners and promote equity. The Educator Preparation Laboratory (EdPrepLab) hosted a webinar to examine the policies and structures needed across pre-k–12 and teacher and leader preparation to foster these deeper learning opportunities for all students across all schools.

As school districts and universities across the nation turn to distance learning, how are educator preparation programs responding? This webinar featured preparation program leaders from the Educator Preparation Laboratory network who addressed such topics as licensing and credentialing, social-emotional learning and trauma-informed practices, and meeting the needs of teacher and school leader candidates through virtual learning.

Nearly 1 in 5 principals leave their schools each year, which can have a domino effect that disrupts student learning and contributes to teacher dissatisfaction and turnover. In this webinar, experts discussed Supporting a Strong, Stable Principal Workforce: What Matters and What Can Be Done, a new report from a research initiative between the National Association of Secondary School Principals and LPI.

Teacher and leader preparation programs continue to adapt how they prepare their candidates during the COVID-19 shutdown and in anticipation of a very different future for teaching and learning. As a follow-up to the highly popular April 23 webinar, this sequel dug deeper into the critical topics impacting teacher and leader preparation programs across the nation and address many of the questions raised by participants in the initial webinar.