The Policy Landscape for Higher Education and Teacher Education

Edward Crowe

Senior Consultant

Carnegie Corporation of New York

WACTE Spring Meeting

APRIL 24, 2008

Higher education

• Learning Outcomes--identification and measurement by institutions

• Accreditation--teaching and learning issues

• Data systems

• Costs, student aid, state budgets

Spellings CommissionThe Future of US Higher Education

Key Issues and Recommendations

Access Cost and Affordability Learning Transparency and Accountability Innovation

www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports.html

Voluntary System of Accountabilityfor Public Higher Education

• NASULGC and AASCU

• FIPSE grant support--$2.4 million

• Key principleso Demonstrate accountability and stewardship to the public

o Measure educational outcomes to identify effective educational practices

o Accessible, understandable, and comparable information

• Lumina Foundation support

www.voluntarysystem.org/index.cfm

Federal and state investments in data systems

• Institute for Education Sciences Program• 27 state grantees• $115 million awarded• Longitudinal data systems and individual

identifiers

http://nces.ed.gov/Programs/SLDS/

Improved assessments of teaching and learning

• NCLB-related draft initiative• Performance-based teacher assessment study• College and work ready standards and assessments• New student achievement assessments (states and

consortia of states)• Consortia of foundations, states, universities and

others to develop performance assessments for students (authorized in draft bills)

State budgets and fiscal policies

• 17 states face budget shortfall of $31 billion

• 11 more states expecting budget shortfalls later this year or next

• Cuts in health and education services

• Impact on higher education (balancing the budget)• Quarterly revenue projection down 2% for State of

Washington (www.ofm.wa.gov/news/release/2008/080215.asp)

(From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

www.cbpp.org/12-18-07sfp.htm

Teacher education

• Program quality

• Teacher quality

• Improved assessment practices

• Striving for professional status

Title II Report Card

Pass rates Program improvement Revisions to Higher Education Amendments by

Congress Low performance: 17/1200

Impact on quality?

https://title2.ed.gov/secReport06.asp

Policy support for alternatives

• KIPP Schools (www.kipp.org)

• Hunter College (www.hunter.cuny.edu)

• Teach for America (www.teachforamerica.org)

• Math for America (www.mathforamerica.org)

Improving outcomes, strengthening the evidence base

New York City--the Pathways Project California State University System University of Wisconsin--FIPSE and AASCU Louisiana Value-added system Ohio Teacher Quality Partnership

Key points

• Some initiated by states or feds for pure accountability purposes

• Others begun by institutions or systems for program improvement

• Still others developed by institutions and states with 3 goals:

Stronger candidatesBetter programsMore robust and professional accountability processes

Effective Responsesto the Policy Landscape

Focusing on outcomes

Fostering collaboration

Building capacity

Building a profession

Response #1-Focusing on Outcomes

“Society reaps at this moment but a small fraction of the advantage which current knowledge

has the power to confer.”

Abraham Flexner (1910)

[Bulletin No. 4, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching]

Response #2-Fostering Collaboration

“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” Mark Twain

Response #3-Building Capacity

First Doctor: “I’ve forgotten all my science: what’s the use of my pretending I

haven’t? But I have great experience: clinical experience; and bedside experience is the main thing, isn't it?”

Second Doctor: “Mere experience by itself is nothing. If I take my dog to the bedside with me, he sees what I see. But he learns nothing from it. Why? Because he's not a scientific dog.”

--George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor’s Dilemma

Examples of effective responses

• Sophisticated internal database

• Candidate pool, observation instruments, research studies linked to program experiences, induction, and professional development

• Pupil learning studies

Lessons from the examples?

• Continuous improvement strategies

• Capacity building to track and study outcomes

• Mixed methods designs--qualitative and quantitative

• Multi-site collaboration--shared resources and ideas

• Work intended to generate knowledge and use it locally

Response # 4-Building a profession

Key components

Who enters?

How are they trained?

How do they practice?

How are they regulated?

What’s the evidence of effectiveness?

Components of professional legitimacy

• Education

• Accreditation

• Licensure

Components of professional legitimacy

Education

Rigor and consistency of training provided to members of the professional community--confers professional status on those who complete training

BUT….

Teacher education--almost systematic absence of shared values, ideas, training methods, and outcomes

Huge variety of programs, pathways, course sequences, degree requirements, battles over program content

Components of professional legitimacy

Accreditation

The process by which a profession sets and applies its own standards and rules…

Rooted in rational and scientific ideas and …

Consistent with values embedded in education, licensure and other forms of oversight

Components of professional legitimacy

Licensure

Standard vehicle for determining entry into a profession…

Professions employ licensure to control entry

BUT…

Many licensing categories, 600+ teacher tests, exceptions to rules… every state with its own laws, rules and exceptions

Moving ahead as a profession

Outcomes

Assessment

Evidence

Continuous improvement