Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This analysis of over 1,000 undergraduate, graduate, and alternative route teacher preparation programs finds that most programs do too little to ensure that elementary teacher candidates know or learn core content (11 topics within literature and composition, science, social studies, and elementary mathematics) by the end of their prep programs. As a result, teacher candidates are ill equipped to succeed on states’ content licensure tests. This concern is verified by newly released data from ETS, which show that on a strong elementary content licensure test, half of aspiring teachers fail on their first attempt, and more than one in four do not pass over a three-year time-period. Moreover, these passing rates are far worse for aspiring black and Hispanic teachers. This study estimates that difficulty in passing these licensure tests keeps roughly 27,000 aspiring teachers, including over 8,000 aspiring teachers of color, out of the classroom each year. These low passing rates mean that relying on recruitment into teacher preparation alone is an insufficient strategy to diversify the teacher workforce. Moreover, extant survey data finds that even elementary teachers who pass licensure tests report that they are not fully prepared to teach content, which has serious consequences for the nation’s elementary students.

This analysis employs an exhaustive review of admissions and course requirements for elementary teacher candidates at prep programs across the country (representing 71 percent of the nation’s undergraduate elementary programs, 35 percent of graduate elementary programs, and a small sample of elementary alternative route programs). This analysis finds that prep programs miss multiple key opportunities to ensure this content knowledge throughout the prep program. Even when aspiring teachers take a course in a core subject area, this course may not be relevant for the needs of aspiring elementary teachers. This problem is present in all core subject areas, but is most evidence in science: two thirds of prep programs do not make sure that elementary teachers take a single relevant science course.

This study goes beyond identifying and quantifying a far-reaching problem in aspiring teachers’ preparation. It also offers several simple, low-cost steps that prep programs can take to produce graduates who are not only more likely to pass licensure tests and enter the classroom, but are more likely to be effective instructors once they reach the classroom.