Essential to improving teacher quality is ensuring that the right data are available to inform the policy and practice changes needed to continuously improve educator preparation program (EPP) quality, teacher effectiveness, and ultimately student learning. Unfortunately, that data are not uniformly available today.

This paper describes how data sharing among states, EPPs, and K-12 leaders can help ensure quality teaching and learning. The paper:

  • Discusses challenges to using data to improve educator preparation
  • Presents state policy recommendations
  • Profiles policy in action in Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Missouri

WestEd’s Ellen Mandinach served as a member of the working group for this paper, developed collaboratively over one year with a group of national, EPP, and state-level experts.