Using Data to Improve Teacher Education

This book offers concrete examples of how data can be used by faculty, staff, and program leaders to improve their collective work as teacher educators. Strong external accountability mandates often lead to tensions that undermine local morale and motivation. This volume focuses on the practical work of navigating these tensions so that valuable programmatic change can happen. It describes policies and practices drawn from a study of “high data use” teacher education programs from around the country that have strategically engaged the challenges of learning to use data for program improvement. Readers will see how the data-use work carried out in these programs strengthened local program identity and coherence. Representing a collaborative effort between researchers and practitioners, this volume presents lessons learned to assist teacher educators who are engaged daily with the challenges of making data useful and used in their programs.

Book Features:

• Examples of how tensions between external mandates for accountability and program improvement can be navigated in ways that are grounded in local program values.
• Detailed case study portraits of individual programs that offer a full and action-oriented sense of data use work.
• Strategies for ensuring that data systems are responsive to multiple stakeholders, such as faculty, administrators, students, and policymakers.
• A diversity of perspectives and experiences from small liberal arts colleges, large teacher preparation institutions, and research-intensive universities.

Charles A. Peck is a professor and former associate dean and director of teacher education at the University of Washington School of Education. Kristen Cuthrell is a professor and director of the Rural Education Institute at the East Carolina University College of Education. Désirée H. Pointer Mace is professor of education and director of graduate education programs at Alverno College and the author of Teacher Practice Online. Tine Sloan is a teaching professor in the Department of Education and director of the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Diana B. Lys is assistant dean for educator preparation and accreditation and clinical assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“These essays represent the best available research on the organizational processes that move from teacher preparation data availability to program improvement.”
—Robert E. Floden, dean and University Distinguished Professor, College of Education, Michigan State University

“Using a theoretically driven case study approach for understanding the complex, highly contextualized, heavily nuanced, and too-often-politicized world of teacher preparation, Cap Peck and his colleagues wade methodically and pragmatically into the use of data by teacher education faculty. Deans of education, directors of teacher preparation programs, teacher educators, state and federal education policymakers, and teacher recruitment specialists will find this book illuminating. It will deepen their appreciation for the inherent challenges and possible solutions for bettering our system for preparing today’s classroom teachers.”
—Robert H. McPherson, dean and Elizabeth D. Rockwell Chair, College of Education, University of Houston

“Using Data to Improve Teacher Education takes an in-depth look into how teacher preparation programs can take a different approach to data use. Data can be a tool for collaboration, learning, and engagement. By making space and time for data use and inquiry, program leaders can re-conceptualize what data is most important and involve faculty in the design, implementation, and dissemination processes. There are many lessons to be discovered here—I believe everyone in teacher preparation should read this book.”
—Sarah Beal, executive director, US PREP

Contents (Tentative)

Foreword G. Williamson McDiarmid

Acknowledgments

part I: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations

1. Introduction and Overview of the Book
Charles A. Peck

2. Building Organizational Capacity and Commitment to Data Use in Teacher Education
Susannah C. Davis and Charles A. Peck

Part II: Case Studies of High Data Use Programs

3. Reconceptualizing Teacher Education and Reculturing Schools of Education: Changing Teaching Institutions Into Learning Organizations
Linda A. Patriarca, Kristen Cuthrell, and Diana Lys

4. Living in a Culture of Evidence and Outcomes: Engaging with Data at Alverno College
Désirée H. Pointer Mace and Patricia Luebke

5. Program Portrait: University of California, Santa Barbara
Tine Sloan and Jennifer Scalzo

Part III: Promising Practices

6. Motivating Faculty Engagement With Data
Susannah C. Davis and Kristen Cuthrell

7. Building (Useful) Data Systems
Diana Lys and Désirée H. Pointer Mace

8. Making Time and Space for Data Use
Tine Sloan, Kristen Cuthrell, and Désirée H. Pointer Mace

9. Leadership Strategy and Practice
Tine Sloan, Diana Lys, and Ann Bullock

10. What We Learned About Getting Started With Data Use Through Self-Study
Aaron Zimmerman, Tabitha Otieno, Jahnette Wilson, Chase Young, Jessica Gottlieb, Benjamin Ngwudike, and Marcelo Schmidt

Part IV: New Directions

11. Improving Programs Through Collaborative Research and Writing
Joy Stapleton, Diana Lys, Christina Tschida, Elizabeth Fogarty, Ann Bullock, and Kristen Cuthrell

12. Building Capacity and Commitment of Future Faculty to Program Improvement Research
Jenny Gawronski and Starlie Chinen

13. Looking Back, Leaning Forward: A Conversation About Current and Future Challenges for Making Data a More Useful Tool for the Improvement of Teacher Preparation Programs
Kristen Cuthrell, Diana Lys, Charles A. Peck, Désirée H. Pointer Mace, Tine Sloan, with G. Williamson McDiarmid

About the Contributors

Index