New Community-Led Effort Focuses on Bringing Comprehensive Data to Teacher Preparation Programs Across the Country
February 13, 2019 – AUSTIN, Texas – Ed-Fi Alliance, LLC, dedicated to empowering a community of educators with real-time, comprehensive student data, today announced that it has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to extend critical technical work and field implementations of the Teacher Prep Data Model (TPDM). This community-led project aims to help improve teacher preparation programs across the country, through data interoperability, utilizing the Ed-Fi Data Standard and Technology Suite.
Teacher preparation programs are the cornerstone of the education system in America, and graduating educators who are well-prepared from their first day in the classroom is critical to ensuring that all students receive the support and education they deserve. Like the K-12 sector, teacher preparation programs are not yet taking advantage of data interoperability to benefit their student outcomes. Ed-Fi’s work through the TPDM project will help solve this problem alongside the broader ecosystem of stakeholders in the teacher preparation sector.
“Using the Ed-Fi model and Technology Suite in the teacher preparation context is a natural progression for our Community. We are focused on improving outcomes for all students, especially those who will one day become educators,” said Troy Wheeler, president, Ed-Fi Alliance. “Bringing data interoperability to teacher prep programs will create a cycle of continuous improvement that will strengthen education programs and the student-teachers that they graduate. These programs can benefit tremendously by implementing interoperability and we are thrilled to partner with the Gates Foundation to enable this critical effort.”
Early technical work to apply the Ed-Fi Data Standard to teacher preparation programs began in 2015 and has resulted in the TPDM extension specifications. The extended model enables comprehensive data aggregation over the span of a teacher-candidate’s experience; from entry into a program, through knowledge and skills demonstrated in fieldwork experiences, to placement and performance as an in-service teacher.
Driven by Ed-Fi Community leader, UPD Consulting, the project has focused on pilot implementations at US PREP, Relay Graduate School of Education and the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. All three are early adopters and have active projects that are bringing multiple source systems together in order to provide a full picture of student progress and later teacher placement data.
“We have long struggled with understanding the trajectory of our graduates once they are placed in a teaching position. Our work with Ed-Fi to implement an interoperability strategy is giving us valuable and complete data sets that can shed light on an educators’ journey as they move through post-secondary programs,” said Patricia McHatton, executive vice president for Academic Affairs, Student Success, and P-16 Integration, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “This data is going to help us improve our programs and curriculum, which will enable us to provide better and more targeted preparation for our future teachers. We are already seeing greater insights.”
Further, Ed-Fi is pleased to announce that long-time ed-tech veteran and thought-leader, Nancy Smith, will join the Ed-Fi team as the TPDM Community Manager. The grant was awarded at the end of 2018 and Ed-Fi Alliance is moving quickly to bring the TPDM capabilities to more Teacher Prep Programs over the three-year grant period.
If you are interested in learning more about the Teacher Prep Data Model and how your program can get involved, join us for the upcoming webinar on Thursday, March 28 at 1pm CT, visit www.ed-fi.org/events to register.
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About the Ed-Fi Alliance
The Ed-Fi Alliance is a nationwide community of leading educators, technologists, and data advocates connecting student data systems in order to transform education. A not-for-profit organization founded in 2012, by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Ed-Fi aims to boost student achievement by empowering educators with real-time, comprehensive insight into every student.
Ed-Fi technologies streamline data management in school districts and states across
the country. By allowing schools to integrate data previously siloed within disconnected tools and software—and organizing it through a single, secure data standard —Ed-Fi solves one of the country’s most perplexing educational challenges: how to get a complete, accurate view of individual student achievement, so that every student can receive the support they need when they need it most.
Media Contact:
Caroline Kazmierski
Ed-Fi Alliance
(512) 413-8694
Caroline.Kazmierski@ed-fi.org
