Longitudinal Study of Certification Programs
Dave Saba
American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence
[email protected]
1225 19th Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington
20036
The purpose of this request for proposal (RFP) by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) is to solicit proposals from qualified contractors to establish a contract through a full and open competition for research projects that will provide longitudinal data on the effectiveness of the American Boards Passport to Teaching and Master Teacher Certification Programs. The contract with ABCTE shall be for 5 years.
The mission of the American Board is to create a teacher certification system that is rigorous and reliable, yet also efficient and cost effective, in order to facilitate entry of new people into the teaching profession as well as to recognize veteran teachers of high merit and proven effectiveness. In order to maintain the highest standards of service to education and to enrich the knowledge base with regard to teacher preparation, teachers certified by the American Board must demonstrate student gains through an ongoing performance validity study.
The purpose for this proposal is to provide the Board with an empirically-based, research approach for evaluating the effectiveness of teachers certified through the ABCTE. This RFP will support the implementation of a well-defined research model that will enable researchers to compare the effectiveness of teachers certified by ABCTE to teachers who have been certified through other routes. The evaluation should provide a rigorous approach using psychometrically valid instruments to analyze the learning gains acquired by students taught by ABCTE certified educators. The Board seeks a research model that not only assesses the impact of performance on student achievement in the short run but includes a longitudinal dimension so that the impact of certification on student achievement may be examined over time. In other words, the study should estimate the value-added contribution of ABCTE teachers to student academic achievement.
