Far too many of our nation’s students today are not being equipped with the core subject area knowledge needed to succeed in school and in life:
The picture is similar in mathematics: 59% of all 4th graders and 66% of all 8th graders are below Proficient. NAEP results also show that African-American and Hispanic student results are far below these overall levels of proficiency.
Effective teachers have a significant impact on student learning outcomes.
Research shows that the most important in-school influence on student achievement is teacher quality and that effective teachers have a significant impact on student learning outcomes (sources: Goldhaber in Education Next, Rockoff in American Economic Review).
Further, there is evidence that effective teachers have a lifelong positive impact: “Students assigned to high value-added teachers are more likely to attend college, attend high-ranked colleges, earn higher salaries, live in higher SES neighborhoods and save more for retirement” (source: Chetty, et al. in National Bureau of Economic Research).
TPI-US believes that teacher preparation programs play a crucial role in developing teaching knowledge and skills that, in turn, produce better learning outcomes as well as more positive life-long outcomes for our P-12 students.
