ED’s Teacher Prep Study Highlights ‘Gray Areas’ on Defining Quality
The U.S. Department of Education’s most recent report on teacher preparation and credentialingincludes a slew of new information, thanks to new provisions in the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. These include admissions requirements for all traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs, the number of student teaching hours required during preparation, details on how the state is improving teacher quality, and criteria for determining low-performing programs.
Stephen Sawchuk at Education Week does a good job of outlining some key findings here, including state report cards, which include not only admissions requirements for every traditional and alternative preparation program in the state, but also average scale scores on licensing tests. This is important, as Sawchuk points out in California, where the report card shows that the average scale score on the licensing exam is higher than the