NCTQ

 
 

Findings: Selective admissions

Findings for undergraduate programs

The only education schools that we evaluated that meet our admissions standard are the 21 that do so by virtue of the fact that the selectivity of the institutions in which they are housed ensures that teacher candidates have strong academic records.

The remaining 29 educations schools in which we evaluated undergraduate programs are housed in institutions with low to nonexistent admission standards. In the case of these schools, we look to see if the education school employs a higher standard for admission than the college or university at large. While many of these education schools require that applicants be interviewed, provide evidence of "positive dispositions" for teaching and/or have minimum grade point averages, none had standards enabling them to compare applicant academic caliber to the general college-going population.

Much distance remains to the goal line for Illinois' education schools if they want to mirror the selectivity practiced in nations in which future teacher candidates must prove themselves academically competitive, not only with other teachers but also with all peers, no matter what their intended profession.

Findings for graduate programs

The picture is no brighter for admissions at the graduate level. Nearly three-fourths of the graduate level programs we evaluated still rely on the state's basic skills test as their lone academic screen into graduate studies. Sometimes they serve as the lone graduate school on a campus that eschews the types of graduate admissions tests customarily used in higher education.1

Just six institutions refuse to rely only on this basic skills test, instead employing the standard test used for admission to graduate school: Governors State University, National-Louis University, Northern Illinois University, Rockford College, Trinity International University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

While six graduate programs do require that applicants take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) for admission, only Rockford College's education department specifies a minimum score that a candidate must have to be considered for admission. On the issue of whether selectivity in admissions is problematic when trying to attract minority applicants, Teach For America provides evidence that high standards and diversity can go hand in hand. Nationally, 30 percent of its corps members are teachers of color.

One additional education school met the standard by virtue of being essentially a fifth-year program at a "most selective" institution.

How Illinois teacher preparation programs fare on this standard

1The proportion of education schools in Illinois that use the GRE for any certificate or master's program may be below the national average. Of 279 education schools surveyed by US News and World Report, 75 percent reported considering or requiring the GRE or MAT for at least one certificate or master's program.