Chicago Teaching Pathways Project

Each year, vast resources are invested in student teaching, which has long been viewed as a cornerstone
of teacher preparation. Yet, much needs to be learned about how the experiences student teachers have
are related to their career trajectories and instructional effectiveness.

Our project, based in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), provides a birds-eye, descriptive account of kinds
of clinical experiences that student teachers from university based preparation programs have
throughout the district and how these experiences relate to planned and realized labor market
outcomes as well as eventual instructional effectiveness. Specifically, we follow a cohort of student
teachers through their student teaching placement and subsequent employment in CPS. We use a
combination of survey and administrative data to get a better understanding of 1) the student teachers’
self-perceived readiness in different instructional domains that match the district’s evaluation rubric, 2)
the number of years they plan to teach in CPS/teaching, 3) whether they apply to teach in CPS, and 4)
whether they get hired in CPS. Further, for those student teachers who are hired in CPS the following
year, we study whether their instructional quality relates to the instructional quality of their mentor
teachers, as measured by CPS district’s REACH observational evaluation rubrics. Finally, we investigate
the predictably of the mentor teacher’s perceptions of the student teacher’s preparedness to teach.

We extended our look at student teachers from university-based programs (sometimes referred to as
“traditional” programs) to understand this important clinical experience across multiple teacher
preparation pathways, including alternative and residency routes. A goal of the study is to provide one
of the most comprehensive descriptive accounts to date of the landscape of teacher preparation across
a large, urban district. Specifically, we investigate whether there are differences in the kinds of
preparation, on average, that traditional, alternative, and residency pathways offer and on which
features, including the kinds and quality of fieldwork, coursework, and recruitment/selection. We also
test whether graduates from certain routes, on average, feel better prepared to teach in various
domains of teaching (e.g., planning, classroom management), plan longer careers in teaching or in CPS,
and intend to apply for positions in schools that serve historically marginalized students.

By examining the features of the placement classrooms, schools, and mentor teachers on subsequent
teaching practices and student learning, we have a unique opportunity to examine the longitudinal
effects of student teaching. Rather than focus on a single outcome (e.g., value-added) we consider a
comprehensive set of outcomes. This work extends prior research that identifies student teaching as a
promising context for prospective teachers’ learning and development.