This content has been archived.

Educator preparation

Across the country, Black, Latino, and students affected by poverty are more likely to be taught by new or underprepared teachers. From research, we know better prepared teachers are more effective and more than twice as likely to remain in the classroom. It is urgent and critical that new teachers are prepared on their first day, ready with the knowledge and skills needed to support their students.

Teacher Preparation Framework

Our investments support teacher preparation providers in implementing sustainable, quality programming. With support from experts in the field, we articulated a set of outcomes and indicators that we believe will result in a diverse (by race, by gender), effective teaching workforce that is well-prepared to positively impact outcomes for Black and Latino students, as well as students experiencing poverty.

Read more
If teacher preparation programs implement sustainable, quality programming at scale, then more teachers will be better prepared to positively impact outcomes for students, especially Black and Latino students and students affected by poverty.
All students benefit from schools that are staffed by diverse, effective teachers, especially Black, Latino students and students affected by poverty. In many communities, this is not the current reality. Teacher shortages, especially in high-need areas of special education, math, science, and bilingual education, are exacerbated by high attrition rates and declining enrollment in many preparation programs.  Teacher prep programs need access to reliable data about their candidates and program completers to better support novices and to inform their program improvement efforts. This data is often spread across multiple systems and organizations in ways that are not easily accessible. High-quality programs, like residencies, that are grounded in strong partnership between prep programs and schools have often been built with unsustainable grant funds which make them difficult to sustain or not affordable to many candidates.
(1) Increase the availability and affordability of high-quality teacher preparation programs that attract a more diverse group of people to enter the teaching profession. (2) Provide technical assistance and network support to teacher preparation institutions committed to implementing high quality programs. (3) Develop tools to address interoperability challenges and resources to support data use for continuous improvement. (4) Support schools in implementing innovative staffing models that include a high-quality student teaching residency as part of their talent pipeline strategy.
Educator prep programs prepare a diverse pool of highly effective new teachers who are equipped with the knowledge and skills to support the needs of K12 students.

Focus Area Timeline

Timeline placeholder: 4 items

Investment Priorities

Our investment in this area focus on the following priorities:

Supporting the implementation of quality models

Teacher preparation transformation centers are intermediary organizations that provide technical assistance and network support to select teacher preparation programs. We fund organizations that have the credibility and capacity to help programs build or transform their models.

Increasing awareness of quality models

We make investments to elevate and bring awareness to high-quality models that exist and their results so that: other existing preparation programs can implement them, policymakers can design and implement policies that support them, funders can fund activities that support them, school systems can partner with and select from them, and prospective teachers have more of them to choose from.

Removing barriers through innovation

To address affordability using a sustainable approach, we are making investments to support districts to reconceptualize their staffing models. These models leverage vacancies to fund support for residents while also providing opportunities for districts to retain their highest performing teachers in redesigned extended-reach and coaching roles.

Sign up for our newsletter

Subscribe to get timely and informative updates directly from the U.S. Program team. The newsletter will offer research, resources, and materials that U.S. Program and our partners create to improve education for all.

By submitting your email to subscribe, you agree to the Gates Foundation’s Privacy & Cookies Notice.