Leveraging Interoperability in the Teacher Talent Pipeline
by Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Crocus, LLC
For years, Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) have struggled to answer even the most basic questions about the candidates who complete their education programs.
While they train these candidates for their roles, they often need more information about where they are hired, the schools they work in, and whether they persist in their careers. Anecdotes and limited feedback have typically driven their improvement plans. Although the data has always existed, it has been scattered across disparate, unconnected systems. Individual solutions for every EPP are simply not feasible.
Given the complex and resource-intensive nature of developing independent solutions to collect and report candidate program and post-program information, it is impractical to expect each EPP to undertake such a task. The inherent challenges–including the intricacy and duplicative efforts– have created the need for a unified and collaborative solution.
The size and scope of Texas's education system and its commitment to diverse certification pathways make it one of the states with the most extensive educator preparation infrastructure. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is leading the way in solving this challenge. TEA turned to Crocus to integrate and display the siloed data around seven essential teacher pipeline questions to draw insights: Candidate Characteristics, Credential and Completion, Employment and Retention, Impact of Teachers, and Student Growth.
At its core, this groundbreaking interoperable dashboard solution leverages the Ed-FiTM Educator Preparation Data Model (EPDM) and has been released as the Insight to Impact (I2I) EPP Dashboard. Today, EPPs in Texas have access to crucial program and candidate information, including candidate outcomes and post-program employment in Texas public schools. This information informs the evaluation of the effectiveness of their program and drives continuous improvement as each EPP strives to deliver the most prepared and effective teachers in Texas classrooms. EPPs now have a complete ‘feedback loop’ as I2I fulfills a gap in receiving comprehensive information about their programs and candidates in return from the state. Without solid information from the state, EPPs were hindered in their ability to make data-driven decisions and adequately assess the outcomes of their educational initiatives. Learn more at www.crocusllc.com.
Project Unicorn Technical Advisory Committee Member
This Story from the Field is a supplement to the 2024 Project Unicorn State of the Sector Report which analyzes K-12 school system capabilities and infrastructure for leveraging education data. Read the full report.