Monmouth College

To ensure that every child - regardless of race or background - receives a quality education, their teachers need to be effective. To support that aim, programs should screen for academic caliber during admissions to ensure that teacher candidates come from the top half of the college-going population. For consideration under this standard, tests used as an academic screen must be normed to the college-going population.

Institution-level selectivity for Monmouth College

• Median SAT score: 1036
• Median ACT score: 23

Program admissions requirement(s):

• Program Admissions Test: ACT
• Required Score: 22
• Program GPA admissions requirement: 2.5

The admissions test requirements set by the program ensure that teacher candidates are among the top half of the college-going population.

A diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, particularly students of color. While there has been real progress over the last twenty years in diversifying the teacher workforce,¹ these gains have not kept pace with a rapidly diversifying student population. To accelerate progress, strategic recruitment efforts by teacher preparation programs are essential.

• Teacher prep enrollment: 18 percent candidates of color²
• Illinois teacher workforce: 18 percent teachers of color³
• Local demographics: 16 percent persons of color⁴

Programs earning a B support the diversification of the teacher workforce. Programs earn this grade under one of two conditions: 1. The percentage of enrolled candidates of color meets or exceeds the diversity of the state teacher workforce, but is up to 5 percentage points lower than the proportion of persons of color in the local population; or, 2. The percentage of enrolled candidates of color meets or exceeds the diversity of the local population, but is up to 5 percentage points lower than the proportion of teachers of color in the state workforce.

Monmouth College is found to be 0.5 percentage points less diverse than the Illinois teacher workforce and 1.9 percentage points more diverse than the local population.

All elementary teacher candidates should learn scientifically based reading instruction, the research-based content and methods to effectively teach all children to read. This content should be clearly evident in a teacher preparation program’s course materials, including class session topics, assignments, practice opportunities, and background materials. The five core components of scientifically based reading instruction evaluated under this standard are: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.

An attempt to review EDST 205, EDST 215, MCTE 405, and MCTE 406 could not be completed because the necessary documentation was not provided. As a result, the quality of reading instruction at Monmouth College remains unclear and the program earns a "cannot be determined" designation.

For additional information on how cooperative programs are scored, please review the technical report.

In order for elementary schools to deliver equitable and effective instruction in mathematics to all students, they need their teachers to have acquired the mathematics content and pedagogical knowledge specified in commonly accepted mathematics education standards. To evaluate that coverage, the Elementary Mathematics standard examines the instructional time allocated to each of the five essential topics in coursework required by teacher preparation programs.

To assess performance under this standard, the distribution of instructional time is estimated using syllabi and course descriptions. Only courses that provide content and pedagogical knowledge related to elementary mathematics are considered.

A review of EDST 110, MATH 210, MATH 211, MCTE 410, and MCTE 411 found the following coverage:

Numbers & Operations: 51 instructional hours*
Recommended target: 45 hours

Algebraic Thinking: 19 instructional hours*
Recommended target: 20 hours

Geometry & Measurement: 43 instructional hours
Recommended target: 25 hours

Data Analysis & Probability: 27 instructional hours
Recommended target: 15 hours

Mathematics Pedagogy: 100 instructional hours
Recommended target: 45 hours

*Please note that for grading purposes, the hours for Numbers & Operations and Algebraic Thinking are summed and measured against a combined target of 65 hours. Under this measure, 70 instructional hours were found.

Programs earning an A+ provide the content and pedagogical knowledge elementary teachers need for effective mathematics instruction. Programs earn this grade by allocating at least 150 instructional hours that encompass the five essential topics and by meeting 100% of the recommended target for each topic area.

Analysis of the required coursework for elementary teacher candidates at Monmouth College found the program to address 100% of the total target recommendation, dedicating adequate instructional time to each of the five topics.

To be successful, elementary teachers need content knowledge in science and social studies, both to build their students' understanding of the world and their critical thinking skills, and also to support students in becoming strong readers. Becoming a strong reader requires cumulative exposure to content knowledge, cutting across multiple domains and disciplines. The courses aspiring teachers take gives them strong background knowledge in these subjects, and in turn, they give this knowledge to students.

This program was not included in the 2023 Building Content Knowledge analysis.

Student teaching serves a critical role in preparing teacher candidates to take the reins of their own classroom. This apprenticeship allows candidates to build on coursework by learning directly from an established teacher, and practice and refine essential instructional and management skills.

Student teaching should be at least 10 weeks long in order to offer opportunities for repeated cycles of practice and growth. It should be full- or nearly-full-time, and include several weeks during which the candidate has primary responsibility for teaching the whole class for full days, so that the candidate can experience the full demands of being a teacher.

In addition, there are two essential steps that programs should take to safeguard the value of the experience:

1. Supply student teachers with sufficient feedback by requiring supervisors to provide student teachers with at least four instances of written feedback based on observations.

2. Establish a structured process for selecting strong cooperating teachers that includes the collection of sufficient information to confirm that cooperating teachers have relevant skills, including ability as a mentor and instructional effectiveness as measured by student learning.

No rating could be determined for this program because the institution did not provide the information necessary for evaluation.

New teachers and their principals consistently report that classroom management is one of their greatest challenges. Teachers will be better prepared to establish a positive classroom environment if, during their preparation programs, they practice and receive feedback on the five classroom management strategies shown by conclusive research to be useful for all students. These strategies are:

1. Rules and Routines – Establishing classroom rules and routines that set expectations for behavior;
2. Learning Time – Maximizing the time that students are engaged in learning by pacing lessons appropriately, managing class materials and the physical setup of the classroom, and teaching interesting lessons;
3. Praise – Using meaningful praise and other forms of positive reinforcement to encourage appropriate behavior;
4. Low-profile Redirection – Using unobtrusive means that do not interrupt instruction to prevent and manage minimally disruptive behavior; and
5. Consequences – Addressing more serious misbehavior with consistent, appropriate consequences.

Student teaching and residency are crucial times for the development and refinement of classroom management skills. The first few months of school are just as critical for candidates in alternative programs who have full responsibility for a classroom of children. Evaluation and observation forms used during these experiences can shape the feedback that participants receive, and are reviewed to determine whether they elicit feedback on all five key classroom management strategies.

No rating for the teacher preparation program could be determined on this standard because the institution refused to provide the information necessary for evaluation.