Ed-prep leaders as instructional champions: threading the needle on quality

This story was initially published in DFI's report Lead Boldly, Teach Brilliantly.

While it may seem self-evident that educator-preparation program (EPP) leaders should care about instructional improvement, the reality is far more complex. Today’s EPP leaders juggle expansive portfolios, from deepening community partnerships, to pursuing new and evolving funding sources, to supporting university priorities around research productivity and recruitment, to sometimes even having to oversee colleges that also include nursing, social work, or human sciences. They must manage these while navigating mounting pressures from accreditation bodies, enrollment demands, and constantly-shifting policy landscapes. In this environment, it can be easy for the work of preparing teachers to deliver high-quality instruction to get diluted or delegated.

At the same time, we know from research that teachers are the biggest in-school factor influencing a student’s learning outcomes. The effectiveness of a teacher can alter the trajectory of a student’s life choices and experiences. This reality carries immense gravity for leaders, especially as persistent teacher shortages cause many communities to turn towards under-qualified teachers, with negative consequences for student achievement.

Leaders must respond with urgency and clarity by making instructional quality a clear, non-negotiable priority. This means grounding every programmatic decision, across all pathways into teaching, in a commitment to preparing teachers who are not only well-intentioned but instructionally knowledgeable and skilled in delivering effective instruction from day one.

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When she was a high school student in the small rural town of Naples, Texas, Stacey Edmonson could recognize that not all teaching was created equal. Her graduating class had only 64 students, and while she felt deeply cared for and supported by many teachers in this close-knit setting, one stood out: her high school English teacher.

“She knew how to provide instruction to ensure learning was taking place,” Edmonson recalls. “I can see that she had all the tools in her toolkit from her preparation to ensure we had opportunities to put learning into practice and demonstrate mastery in ways that would support long-term capacity.”

The contrast was stark in comparison to another teacher who was also kind and caring but “clearly did not have modeling of what good instruction looks like.” It was evident to Edmonson that the other teacher did not have “techniques for delivering instruction or meeting the needs of different learners, or how to assess whether or not we were learning.” As a result, she was reluctant to continue taking science, focusing instead on more opportunities to engage and learn from her English teacher.

Today, as Dean of the College of Education at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), a regional university in Texas, Edmonson has made it her mission to ensure every aspiring teacher graduates ready to provide high-quality instruction – because she knows the stakes.

Under her leadership, SHSU has built deep, data-driven partnerships with over 80 districts across the state and established different teacher preparation pathways into teaching, such as paid residencies and hybrid in-person/virtual options. These flexible options allow the institution to meet local workforce and aspiring teacher needs. Critically, Edmonson’s work also goes beyond access and alignment: she’s placed instructional quality at the center of every decision.

Over the last several years, she has led her team to partner with instructionally-focused organizations like DFI to revise coursework to reflect the science of learning and align literacy and math instruction with research and the use of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). One of Edmonson’s biggest moves, central to her Impact Academy adaptive challenge, was addressing the disconnect between coursework and clinical practice, an issue common to many EPPs. Previously, for example, student teaching was overseen by part-time faculty with little connection to the rest of the program.

“That model was broken,” she said. “There was no feedback loop. Clinical practice didn’t inform coursework, and coursework didn’t adapt based on what we saw in the field.”

Edmonson restructured the model to create a closed-loop system of preparation: faculty now take active responsibility for what happens during clinical teaching and use that data to improve their own instruction. That way, “they have responsibility for not only any gaps and successes in coursework, but also gaps that manifest in clinical teaching and that have implications for the courses, the curriculum, the programming, and the experiences that led up to that.”

District and school partners are noticing the changes. On SHSU’s annual principal satisfaction survey, which measures principals’ perceptions of the preparedness of their first-year teachers from SHSU, overall average ratings have risen year-over-year since the 2020-2021 academic year to a current 2.464 overall average rating (on a scale from 0=not at all prepared to 3=well prepared), with instruction among the greatest growth areas.

Anecdotally, principals have shared with Edmonson that these novice teachers “don’t look and sound or behave like brand new graduates. They look and sound and behave like second-year teachers who know what they’re doing and are ready to really have a positive impact on kids.”

Through this approach, Edmonson has made instructional improvement the core commitment of her leadership: not one priority among many, but the driving force behind how SHSU prepares future teachers to make a lasting difference. To bring it a step further, Edmonson has also consistently amplified this focus in broader conversations through national conferences, with state and federal policymakers, in news media, and more, shaping and informing how other teacher-preparation programs can emulate this priority in their own contexts.

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How can leaders put instructional improvement at the core of their leadership commitments?

In our report, Lead Boldly, Teach Brilliantly, we emphasize reclaiming instructional improvement as a core leadership commitment as one of three critical, mutually-reinforcing priorities leaders can act on in order to strengthen teacher preparation over the next 10 years. To put this priority into action, we encourage leaders to:

1. Co-create, and continuously champion, a shared vision of quality instruction. Consistently communicate what great teaching looks like, and co-create a vision for instructional excellence with teacher-educators and K-12 partners that drives everything from coursework to clinical experiences, as well as from hiring to recognition. Be present in settings where instruction, and practice, are happening – in K-12 classrooms, during clinical observations, and in conversations with mentor teachers – to observe firsthand how these are taking place and learn and refer to examples of high-quality practice. From the types of questions leaders ask, to how they create opportunities for collaboration and around what, when EPP leaders actively make instructional quality a clear focus of their own time, it sends a clear message to everyone else that instruction must be prioritized.

2. Build systems that connect data, practice, and improvement, Lead your team in using qualitative and quantitative data not as a compliance check, but as part of an ongoing feedback cycle. Transparently model how to leverage this data to inform instructional decisions, curriculum changes, and faculty learning. Create intentional, structured time, learning opportunities, and/or incentives for your team to review meaningful evidence about how aspiring teachers are growing in their knowledge and performance. Break down silos among teacher-educators and staff by ensuring coursework and clinical experiences inform one another in a continuous improvement loop.

3. Invest in people and structures that advance instructional quality. Support faculty and staff in adopting evidence-based practices, from the science of learning to the use of high-quality instructional materials. This means dedicating time, creating collaborative structures, and directing resources where they’ll have the greatest instructional impact with aspiring teachers and K-12 students. Support faculty to do learning walks in schools, in partnership with K-12 educators, and observe and unpack instruction together. Adapt ideas from peer EPP leaders and networks to your context, and create space for your team to do the same.

Learn More

DFI has supported a community of nearly 200 leaders through our Impact Academy fellowship and Leadership Collaborative alumni network to transform teaching and learning in their communities and in collective efforts. To get involved, apply to be a 2026-27 Impact Academy fellow or get in touch to learn more: