Building Better Teachers

NCTQ
Teacher Prep
Review

Effective teachers make a fundamental difference in the lives of our nation's students. Yet for decades, little attention has been paid to how teachers are prepared to succeed in the classroom. It's time to focus on building better teachers right from the start.

Higher ed teacher preparation programs prepare almost 90% of the 165,000 novice teachers who are hired each year. But, unlike other professional schools, teacher prep programs are held to weak standards, enabling ineffective programs to receive state approval and national accreditation. The result? Too few new teachers receive the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in the classroom.

With the right training, talented and motivated people can be made into great teachers. But our teacher preparation programs must be up to the task. That's why NCTQ has embarked on a review of the nation's 1,400 higher ed teacher preparation programs.

Using our well-honed methodology, we're working to find the programs that are doing the best job in preparing tomorrow's educators, those that need to improve and those that need to be radically restructured. Our ultimate goal? Ensuring all teachers are student-ready before they enter the classroom.

The NCTQ Teacher Prep Review is slated for release in June 2013. NCTQ will publish reviews of teacher prep annually.