Educators and policymakers across the United States recognize a growing urgency to improve the nation’s systems of teacher preparation. Ensuring that teachers stay and thrive in the profession depends largely on having system-wide policies and practices in place that address teacher shortages, promote equity and excellence, and cultivate expertise, diversity, and more.

The California State University (CSU) system partnered with the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation to launch the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI), in an effort to transform the nature and quality of teacher preparation at both individual CSU campuses and across the CSU system as a whole. To answer the question, “What does it take to transform teacher education?” WestEd and SRI International conducted an evaluation to examine and share learnings about the CSU-led effort to implement large-scale clinically oriented teacher preparation reform.

As part of a series of new evaluation reports that explore key transformational elements of effective teacher preparation programs, this paper reviews the evolution of a system of support for NGEI campuses that included targeted grant requirements, coaching and technical assistance, and a learning community to help partnerships share problems of practice. The following levers supported NGEI campuses to undergo rapid transformation, while implementing reforms in systematic, sustainable, and context-specific ways:

  • Lever 1: Balance grant requirements with flexibility and responsive support
  • Lever 2: Customize technical assistance support to meet partnership needs
  • Lever 3: Embed opportunities for cross-networked learning and collaboration

To find out more about lessons learned and promising practices that emerged throughout the implementation of the NGEI, download the related papers in this four-part study:

  1. Building Strong Partnerships to Improve Clinically Oriented Teacher Preparation
  2. Strengthening the Clinical Orientation of Teacher Preparation Programs
  3. Strengthening the Data Use and Continuous Improvement Capacity of Teacher Preparation Programs