A Statement on the NCTQ Teacher Preparation Report

On June 18, 2013 the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released a report summarizing their assessment of teacher preparation programs nationally. The faculty in the College of Education (COE) agree with NCTQ that colleges of education must regularly assess the quality of their programs and continuously seek to improve their effectiveness. However, despite the relatively positive rankings of our elementary, secondary, and special education teacher preparation programs, we believe the NCTQ report is a deeply flawed document that does not do justice to the complex issues related to improving the quality of teacher preparation programs.

Our primary concerns are with the methodology that NCTQ used to arrive at its rankings and conclusions. While there are many problems with their approach, one significant issue is that the primary sources of data for the report were program documents such as course descriptions in the general catalog, course syllabi, advising forms, and student teaching handbooks. Their analyses focused on variables such as the textbooks that were used in the courses, descriptions of the assignments that were completed by students, the topics that were covered in classes, the criteria used to select field placement sites, and so on. NCTQ staff did not do site visits or even talk with faculty to gain a more in depth understanding of the instruction or support that teacher candidates received in their preparation programs. Even more troubling is that they had no measures of the knowledge and skills that teacher candidates had learned or whether program graduates could successfully use research-based instructional practices in the classroom.

In short, their approach to evaluating teacher preparation programs is like trying to judge the quality of refrigerators by reading the specification and installation manuals without examining the quality of the workmanship or their performance. No one would give credence to this kind of review for refrigerators so why should they for teacher education programs?

In addition, the NCTQ report on our teacher education programs included a number of inaccuracies that mischaracterize the curriculum and educational experiences that we provide to teacher candidates. In spite of the assertions in the NCTQ report:

• Teacher candidates complete between 525 and 800 hours of classroom-based teaching depending on their specialization under the tutelage of highly skilled experienced teachers; including a full time, 12 to 14 week student teaching experience.

• Teacher candidates are observed and provided feedback weekly on their instructional and classroom management skills either by COE clinical professors and/or the cooperating teachers in the candidates’ field placements.

• Cooperating professionals in field experiences are selected jointly by COE faculty and district representatives to ensure that students have the opportunity to work with experienced teachers who employ research-based practices in their classrooms.

• As part of their supervised field experiences, elementary and special education teacher candidates are required to complete 50 hours of practicum at the Utah Reading Clinic in which they learn to teach literacy skills to struggling readers.

• Instruction on the use of the Utah Common Core is integrated into all literacy, mathematics, social studies, and science courses consistent with district and state requirements.

• All graduates complete standalone classes on behavior management and courses that integrate classroom management into classroom-based practicum experiences.

• All graduates are provided with content-based (e.g., literacy, math) courses on lesson planning and assessment.

It is important for students, professionals, and community members to understand that the COE’s teacher education programs in elementary, secondary and special education are nationally accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). Unlike NCTQ, TEAC has undergone rigorous review by the U.S. Department of Education(DOEd) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) to ensure that its review process, decision criteria, and accreditation decisions are aligned with the most rigorous research on teacher preparation and student learning. Further, the COE’s teacher preparation programs are directly linked to the Utah Effective Teaching Standards. The Utah standards are based on nationally recognized professional standards in preparing teachers developed by the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). By grounding our programs in these standards we ensure that our teacher candidates receive rigorous preparation that reflects the most recent research in the field.

We regularly evaluate the quality of our programs on a large number of variables and use this information to continually refine our curriculum to ensure that our graduates have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to be effective teachers in today’s schools. These data suggest that we recruit high-qualified students and that our graduates are extremely well prepared for their positions. Consider for example:

• The University Grade Point Averages (GPAs) of students who were admitted in 2011-12 to the elementary, secondary, and special education teacher preparation programs were 3.6, 3.4, and 3.4 respectively.

• The average GPAs of secondary teaching majors in their subject-area classes were well above a 3.0 in 2011-12. The average GPAs of secondary education majors in subject-area classes were equal to or above the average GPAs of non-teaching majors in the areas of Art, English, Exercise and Sports Science, Health, History, and Math.

• 100% of the elementary education graduates in 2012 passed the Praxis II Elementary Content Test required by the Utah State Office of Education for licensure. Thirty-two percent of the graduates received a Recognition of Excellence from the Educational Testing Service indicating that these students scored in the top 15% of all individuals taking the test that year.  

• 100% of the secondary education graduates in 2012 passed the Praxis II Subject Assessment Tests required by the Utah State Office of Education for licensure in their discipline. Fifty percent of the graduates received a Recognition of Excellence.

• 98% of the special education graduates in 2012 passed the Praxis II Principles of Teaching and Learning Test required by the Utah Office of Education for licensure (ETS does not award a Recognition of Excellence for this test).

• In 2011-12, 100% of the elementary education graduates, 90% of secondary education graduates, and 100% of special education graduates obtained teaching positions.

Teacher preparation programs can and should improve the quality of their programs. However, this can only be accomplished through a rigorous, systematic, and comprehensive analysis of the elements of teacher preparation programs that result in the most improvement in student achievement and success. Unfortunately, the NCTQ report fails to meet this standard.

The COE will continue to work with our partners in local districts and the community to refine our teacher preparation programs to make sure that we are preparing teachers who can help all students succeed in school.

John McDonnell
Interim Dean