EdPrep Partners Quarterly Update Spring 2025
EdPrep Partners Quarterly Update
Spring 2025 | Elevating Teacher Preparation. Accelerating Change.
EdPrep Partners: A National Center for Quality Teacher Preparation
Improving Teacher Preparation—Together
At EdPrep Partners, we believe every child deserves an excellent educator—and that starts with dramatically improving how teachers are prepared. As a national technical assistance center, our mission is to strengthen educator preparation programs, scale the number of well-prepared teachers, and ensure every candidate enters the classroom ready to teach, lead, and make an impact on day one.
We’re already fast at work alongside educator preparation programs, state agencies, and funders committed to lasting change in educator preparation. Our support moves beyond compliance or theory—we provide on-the-ground, research-based technical assistance that helps programs dramatically improve coursework, clinical and internship experiences, and teacher educator practices, while embedding systems that drive continuous improvement. Our work reaches every level of program design and every person involved—from faculty and supervisors to mentor teachers, candidates, and P–12 students—ensuring that quality teaching isn’t just the goal for candidates, but the expectation for everyone responsible for their preparation.
We know that meaningful change in teacher preparation doesn’t happen through isolated efforts—it requires shared vision, intentional design, and sustained support. That’s why we’re building tools, partnerships, and capacity at every level of the system. It will take all of us.
This is our first quarterly update. It offers a glimpse into what we’re seeing, what we’re sharing, and what we’re building—together with the field. Whether you’re leading an EPP, setting state policy, supporting the teacher workforce, or driving innovation in educator preparation, we’re grateful for your partnership and momentum. This work can’t wait—and we’re here to help it move faster, further, and more effectively.
Let’s make teacher preparation better—together.
Calvin J. Stocker
Founder & CEO, EdPrep Partners
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EdPrep Insights: What You May Have Missed
Our EdPrep Insights series brings forward urgent challenges in educator preparation and offers research-aligned, actionable strategies for improvement. Each brief is grounded in our technical assistance approach and directly reflects the EdPrep Performance Framework and our 14 Levers for Quality Teacher Preparation. If you haven’t had a chance to explore the latest editions, here’s what you’ve missed:
No More Data for Data’s Sake
Data systems abound—but when disconnected from daily decisions, they lose power. This Insight reframes how programs can embed data use into real-time improvement.
The Preparation Gap: What 2024–2025 Texas Data Reveals About Teacher Readiness
Texas data shows a widening divide in teacher readiness—not just by certification status, but by pathway and region. This Insight argues for re-centering preparation, not just compliance. - Read the EdPrep Insight
Field Supervision Matters. High-Impact Coaching & Feedback Matter Even More.
Too many candidates are supervised. Too few are coached. This Insight outlines what structured, high-impact coaching systems require to truly drive candidate development.
EdPrep In Focus: Resources for Program Leaders
This spotlight series delivers timely, region-specific guidance to support improvement in educator preparation.
Mid-Year ASEP Data & Perception Survey Refresh
With the release of the 2024–25 ASEP Mid-Year and Perception Survey data sets, EdPrep Partners has developed two structured tools to help educator preparation programs make meaning of the data and translate insights into action:
These tools align with EdPrep Partners’ Data-Driven Decision-Making & Continuous Improvement lever—one of the 14 Levers for Quality Teacher Preparation. With nearly 130 educator preparation programs operating across Texas, these resources offer a clear, practical path for programs to engage in data-driven reflection and implement meaningful improvements—starting now.
What We’re Learning From the Field
Across the field this spring, several powerful voices are elevating what matters most in educator preparation—structured development, deeper learning, and systems that prioritize quality over narrative.
From EPIC at UNC Chapel Hill
EPIC’s recent research focuses on two urgent areas of system-level need:
A Bridge to Success? Outcomes for Students Attending Summer Transition Grades Programs in NC
This brief examines the design and implementation of summer bridge programs in North Carolina, the characteristics of P-12 students that attended, and their potential impact on student outcomes (e.g. student achievement scores, attendance in the subsequent academic year, etc.).
Transitions from Community College to Teacher Education: Motivations, Barriers, and Post-Secondary Experiences Among University of Houston Teacher Candidates
This report explores the lived experiences of aspiring teachers transferring from community colleges into EPPs. Key takeaways include the need for clearer advising, credit transfer transparency, and culturally responsive supports to help these candidates persist and thrive. - Read the Brief
From Natalie Wexler
In her new book, Beyond the Science of Reading, and a related feature in The 74, Wexler argues that phonics alone won’t produce strong readers or deep thinkers. Without a content-rich curriculum grounded in cognitive science, students lack the conceptual foundation to analyze, synthesize, and write with meaning. As Wexler writes: “The more students know, the better they can write; the better they can write, the more they can learn.”
From TeachingWorks at the University of Michigan
In Why is “learning loss” so trendy?, TeachingWorks’ Nicole Garcia challenges surface-level interpretations of NAEP score trends, calling for deeper investment in mathematics teacher preparation. She emphasizes that what’s been lost is not just points—but opportunity: the chance for students to engage in rich, meaningful mathematical thinking that goes beyond procedures to reasoning, justification, and communication.
What’s Ahead
As demand for aligned, high-impact preparation grows, EdPrep Partners will continue to support programs, systems, and states in building the conditions for lasting improvement. We’ll share additional insights, expand our reach, and deepen our partnerships—always with a focus on sustainable change, instructional quality, and readiness on day one.
We look forward to sharing key developments and new learning in our next quarterly update.
Stay Connected
If you're interested in learning more, exploring collaboration or technical assistance, or just want to catch up, we’d love to connect:
About EdPrep Partners
Elevating Teacher Preparation. Accelerating Change.
EdPrep Partners is a national technical assistance center and non-profit. EdPrep Partners delivers a coordinated, high-impact, hands-on technical assistance model that connects diagnostics with the support to make the changes. Our approach moves beyond surface-level recommendations, embedding research-backed, scalable, and sustainable practices that most dramatically improve the quality of educator preparation—while equipping educator preparation programs, districts, state agencies, and funders with the tools and insights needed to drive systemic, lasting change.
