Toward a Culture of Evidence: Factors Affecting Survey Assessment of Teacher Preparation.

Introduction Developing a culture of evidence to assess and improve teacher preparation programs is a critical issue in American education. Teacher education has been struggling with the challenge of preparing and retaining sufficient numbers of high-quality teachers who can work effectively with students from all cultural and racial backgrounds, raising the achievement for all students (Wang, Spalding, Odell, Klecka, & Lin, 2010). Darling-Hammond (2002) found that teacher preparation is a stronger correlate of student achievement than class size or school spending, accounting for 40% to 60% of the variance in achievement. Teachers who learn and practice sound pedagogical techniques can affect students' measured achievement (Blair, 2000). Although these studies indicate that teacher quality is the most important factor influencing student achievement (Whitehurst, 2002), even among those who believe the high quality preparation of teachers is critical, there are sharp contrasts concerning the best approach (Levine, 2006). Many scholars suggest that a strong research base on how best to prepare teachers to meet the challenges of today's classrooms is lacking (Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2001). Metzler and Blankenship (2008) discussed a "paucity of systematically collected evidence" in teacher preparation assessment despite it being central to the conduct and future of teacher education (p. 1098). Cochran-Smith (2003) posited that formal program assessment efforts are noticeably lacking in teacher education. This shortage of evidence results in a myriad of potential "solutions" regarding teacher preparation, but with few ways to evaluate their promise (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2008). Numerous reports and analyses have focused on this lack of a research base with most demanding better and more authentic assessment (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Concurrently there is a national demand for the reform of teacher education, particularly university-based preparation (Capraro, Capraro, & Helfeldt, 2010). Educational coursework has been found to have a critical point of diminishing returns and several studies have indicated that teachers with advanced subject matter degrees, rather than advanced education degrees, produce students who perform better in math and reading (Kaplan & Owings, 2002). A credential in education may be sufficient to produce student learning, but greater content knowledge has been found to affect learning as much as advanced education degrees (Greenwald & Hedges, 1996). Eleven years ago Zeichner (1999) pointed out that education faculty must do the best job possible in preparing teachers for our schools or perhaps let someone else do the job. Many voices echo that sentiment, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2010) who asserted that many of the nation's 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom. This type of change requires quality assessment and a clear understanding of what the resulting data indicate. The evidence-based education movement, which holds that decisions about practice and policy should be made on the basis of empirical evidence about outcomes, is now predominant (Moss, 2007), despite the defensiveness and recalcitrance of some faculties of education (Akmal & Miller, 2003). Many initiatives are intended to create new cultures of evidence or inquiry in institutions (Knapp, Copland, & Swinnerton, 2007) and/or to "re-culture" organizations so that using evidence and assessment data becomes central to the way decisions about local policy and practice are made (Louis, 2008). Cochran-Smith (2009) called for new cultures of evidence and inquiry in teacher education and stated that they have the potential to be transformative and revitalizing. She also pointed out that current discussions about creating cultures of evidence in teacher preparation often do not reflect the understanding of culture or its resistance to change. …