Publications

State of the States 2023: Policies to Increase Teacher Diversity
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State of the States 2023: Policies to Increase Teacher Diversity

Despite robust research that shows that teachers of color increase positive academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes for all students, particularly students of color, new data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) suggest a variety of ways state education leaders and policymakers could do more to increase teacher diversity.

Teacher Prep Review: Strengthening Elementary Reading Instruction
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Teacher Prep Review: Strengthening Elementary Reading Instruction

Giving teachers the knowledge and skills they need to teach reading effectively is fundamental for improving life outcomes for all children and reversing historical patterns of inequity. New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) provides the most up-to-date information available on the extent to which nearly 700 teacher preparation programs across the country prepare aspiring teachers to teach children to read. Download the full report or view a summary of...

Teacher Prep Review: Building Content Knowledge
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Teacher Prep Review: Building Content Knowledge

New data and analysis from NCTQ finds significant opportunities for teacher preparation programs to improve their coursework requirements to ensure that aspiring elementary school teachers receive the essential social studies and science content knowledge they need for the classroom. The new report shows that while most teacher preparation programs have sufficient course options available, only 3% require aspiring teachers to complete courses in most of the social studies and science topics an elementary teacher needs...

Do States Have the Data they Need to Answer Important Questions about their Teacher Workforce?
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Do States Have the Data they Need to Answer Important Questions about their Teacher Workforce?

Given both the importance—and dearth—of nuanced, local data on teacher supply and demand, NCTQ set out to understand the key data elements states are currently collecting, which data is missing, and the level of detail that is needed to meaningfully answer essential questions about the teacher workforce. In a new state policy brief, we share the results of a survey of state education agencies on the extent to which they collect data on 39 distinct...

State of the States 2022: Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policies
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State of the States 2022: Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policies

Results of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveal alarming results: Since 2019, scores declined substantially for all students, while disparities widened for students already most affected by opportunity gaps. As districts and states help students recover in the wake of a global pandemic, supporting teachers and principals by recognizing strong performance, and helping them grow and improve where necessary, is more urgent than ever.

State of the States 2022: Teacher Compensation Strategies
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State of the States 2022: Teacher Compensation Strategies

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. However, strategic pay remains underutilized as a tool to attract teachers to the schools or subjects that are traditionally harder to staff. Similarly, few states have policies that consider performance in salary schedules or reward prior relevant work experience in order to attract career switchers to the teaching profession. This report examines the...

Digging Deeper: Which types of institutions achieve excellence and equity for aspiring teachers of color?
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Digging Deeper: Which types of institutions achieve excellence and equity for aspiring teachers of color?

Building a more diverse teacher workforce is essential to addressing educational inequity for students of color. In this analysis, NCTQ considers teacher licensure test pass rate data through the lenses of excellence and racial equity, highlighting those teacher prep institutions that achieve racial equity in their pass rates, pointing toward promising practices that others can adopt, and proving that high pass rates for aspiring teachers of color are entirely achievable.

Teacher Prep Review: Preparation in Elementary Mathematics
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Teacher Prep Review: Preparation in Elementary Mathematics

Improving instruction in elementary mathematics is critical to supporting better academic and life outcomes for our students. While weak elementary math instruction is not a new challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have exacerbated the issue. Many states have reported that students have lost more learning in math than in reading over the past two years, and pre-existing gaps in math achievement between low-poverty and high-poverty schools and between majority-White and majority-Black schools have worsened...

Ensuring Students' Equitable Access to Qualified and Effective Teachers
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Ensuring Students' Equitable Access to Qualified and Effective Teachers

How states have responded to a 2015 federal law that they collect and report on the equitable distribution of teacher talent across their schools.

State of the States 2021: State Reporting of Teacher Supply and Demand Data
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State of the States 2021: State Reporting of Teacher Supply and Demand Data

What data do states collect and report on the teacher labor market? Do states connect data on supply and demand to better understand and address teacher shortages? Explore state policies in this new NCTQ report.

Digging Deeper: Which subjects pose the greatest challenges to aspiring elementary teachers?
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Digging Deeper: Which subjects pose the greatest challenges to aspiring elementary teachers?

Elementary teachers have a big job. Unlike secondary teachers, they need to know not just one subject well, but four. Elementary teachers are expected to teach English language arts, math, science, and social studies—key content that develops a foundation for students' future academic success. In this new brief, we dig deeper into teacher licensure test pass rate data to explore in which of the four subjects aspiring teachers are most successful—and where they struggle the...

Driven by Data: Using Licensure Tests to Build a Strong, Diverse Teacher Workforce
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Driven by Data: Using Licensure Tests to Build a Strong, Diverse Teacher Workforce

The NCTQ publication of long-hidden data on institutional pass rates for elementary content teacher licensure tests serves as a compass, pointing toward strengths and opportunities in preparing aspiring elementary teachers for success in the classroom.

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