Leadership commitment to scale can be critical to a program’s success. Daring leaders, for example, are those who are willing to take risks to lead the educator preparation programs to positive change. When a daring leader establishes and effectively communicates a commitment to implementing high-quality programming at scale and across all pathways, a program is better positioned to have the resources needed for effective scaling. For example, when Robert McPherson stepped into the role of Dean at University of Houston’s College of Education, he saw a need to transform teacher preparation so that more teachers were ready for the classroom on day one. 

Dr. McPherson was intent on integrating deeper hands-on teaching experiences for the College’s teacher candidates while also maintaining the ability to scale up the program to meet Texas demands. McPherson’s daring leadership resulted in a deep partnership with the Houston Independent School District. The partnership resulted in significant changes to the preparation program, including the implementation and gradual scale up of a year-long residency program. The year-long residency program now operates at full scale. 

Scaling an educator preparation program is a multi-step process that includes planning, reinvention, piloting, evaluation, adaptation and iteration, all of which takes time. Programs should scale their transformed model as quickly as is both ambitious and feasible, without unnecessarily risking program quality, implementation success, or the stifling of the change necessary for K-12 students, especially those who have been historically underserved. 

Prior to scaling, an educator preparation program may seek to identify and pursue opportunities to partner with other stakeholders, such as K-12 school systems and community organizations, who can support effective and efficient scale. For example, an educator preparation program may wish to partner or strengthen existing partnerships with local K-12 districts to develop a common vision and set of resources to scale up and implement high-quality clinical experience for its teacher candidates. Partnerships help to set clear expectations, define protocols, and create a shared sense of clarity among partners on goals, purpose, and level of commitment. 

The University of Texas at El Paso, for example, develops carefully defined MOUs with district partners that define clear expectations, protocols, and a shared vision for producing high-quality teachers.

When an educator preparation program scales its transformed model, program costs may increase and some candidates may seek to attend another program to avoid higher costs. A candidate may even choose to attend a lower quality preparation program in exchange for lower program costs. 

As a program begins to scale, it may consider how it might respond to these market forces and whether there are action steps it can take—such as creating partnerships in which district and program develop strategic staffing models to provide for sustainable residency stipends, adjusting recruiting practices to enroll candidates earlier in the pipeline to the profession—to mitigate against decreased demand and ensure the highest quality for the students, districts, and communities for whom programs provide teacher candidates.