Fostering a New Approach to Research on Teacher Preparation: Results of the First Convening of Researchers, Practitioners, and K-12 Educators

instruction that teachers bring to their students; therefore, preparing new teachers well is crucial to student achievement (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2014; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004). Recent research on graduates of teacher preparation programs suggests that some programs are producing new teachers who are more capable than others (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2009; Goldhaber, Krieg, & Theobald, 2013; Henry, Patterson, Campbell, & Yi, 2013). Although these studies point to differences in the graduates’ abilities, they generally do not provide actionable data about specific components of teacher preparation that are related to graduates’ capabilities. Some studies have examined components or structures of particular programs to determine whether these programs help train new teachers who are more capable than others (Goldhaber, Krieg, & Theobald, 2017; Ronfeldt, 2012, 2015; Ronfeldt, Schwartz, & Jacob, 2014). These studies are helpful to teacher preparation providers, but at the same time, they leave teacher educators in need of more information.