NCTQ's Pretty Darn Quick

Teacher voices: Dowan on teacher prep and selection criteria

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:00 PDT

Today we continue our teacher voices video series, in which educators speak out on the importance of teacher prep programs that make them classroom ready from day one. In this installment, Dowan McNair-Lee talks about the need to set high academic standards for those entering the profession. She's an eighth grade English teacher with ten years experience.

Nipping errors in the bud

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:00 PDT

Today, Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond posted a blog on Valerie Strauss' The Answer Sheet alleging that our teacher prep ratings are "nonsense."

Many of the objections she raised are answered by our detailed methodology and scoring explanations. But her post makes a number of factual errors that we feel compelled to address:

Claim: The Review is so badly done that NCTQ asserts that there is an undergraduate teacher preparation program at Columbia when there is none.

Fact: Actually there is: the Urban Teaching Track Childhood Education program at Columbia College.

Claim: We got UC Santa Barbara's ratings wrong because we "missed" a bunch of elementary math courses, English Language Learners courses and a year-long student teaching program.

Fact: We didn't miss these courses or the student teaching program at all. We looked at each one and each one failed our standards. That explains their low scores, not sloppy errors on our part.

Claim: An implication is made that our rating of Cal State University at Chico is wrong because we missed its great "hands-on" instruction at its learning lab.

Fact: While CSU-Chico's learning lab may be fabulous, it is immaterial. All we know is that Chico does not give student teachers adequate feedback or require that student teachers are assigned to classroom teachers who are effective.

There is one point that Dr. Darling-Hammond made which we have found to be correct. We did miss secondary math courses at Stanford University that should in fact be scored on our Secondary Methods Standard.

As we have said from the beginning, with 16,000 ratings decisions, it was inevitable that we would make some errors. That's why we set up the Forum process, where we will publicly address all objections to our ratings and make corrections where necessary. Programs such as Stanford's can send us their objections now and we will address them in July on our website.

We are pleased by the public discussion happening today about teacher preparation following the release of the Teacher Prep Review. This is how we are going to improve teacher preparation in America, by highlighting the best programs and helping mediocre ones improve so that every future teacher can be classroom ready, day one.

An inside look at some of the top teacher prep programs

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:00 PDT

Today NCTQ released its Teacher Prep Review, which takes a close look at the quality of training provided by 2,420 teacher preparation programs across the country. Our results show that most have a long way to go to get teachers classroom ready from day one.

But there are some programs that stand out. To paint a picture of what strong teacher prep can look like, we've created short videos on some of the programs that excel overall (Lipscomb University, Ohio State) or in particular areas (Louisiana State in elementary math, Arizona State in student teaching, and Morgan State in elementary and secondary content).

It's programs like these that aspiring teachers should strongly think about applying to and that districts should look to recruit from. And it's programs like these that can serve as models for the field as a whole.

Lipscomb University (Tennessee)
Strengths: Undergraduate secondary overall (4/4 stars)

Ohio State University

Strengths: Graduate secondary overall (4/4 stars), graduate elementary overall (3.5/4 stars)

Lousiana State University

Strengths: Common Core elementary mathematics (4/4 stars) and selection criteria (4/4 stars) for undergraduate elementary

Arizona State University

Strengths: Student teaching for undergraduate and graduate elementary and secondary (4/4 stars), Common Core high school content for graduate secondary (4/4 stars)

Morgan State University

Strengths: Common Core elementary content (4/4 stars) and Common Core high school content (4/4 stars) for undergraduates

Teacher voices: Marisol on teacher prep and student teachers

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:00 PDT

As part of our series of teacher voice videos, we hear from Marisol Castillo, a high school English teacher with nine years experience. Marisol says one of the most valuable things her teacher prep program did for her was give her a good student teaching placement and mentor teacher.

Teacher voices: Eliza on teacher prep and student teaching

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:00:00 PDT

Eliza Ramirez, a middle school English/language arts teacher with five years experience, talks about the importance of being placed with a high-performing veteran teacher for her student teaching experience.