In spring 2011, NCTQ first convened an Audit Panel to provide technical assistance on the Teacher Prep Review's general methodology and the processes that had been put in place for data collection, processing and analysis. Regular review by the Audit Panel of ratings processes helps ensure that our teacher preparation program ratings are reliable. 

At the all-day meeting the panel will be holding at the end of January, the four original members (Diane Garavaglia, Rebecca Herman, Bill Schmidt and Amber Winkler) will be joined by two new members, Mark Schneider and Grover "Russ" Whitehurst.

Mark Schneider is currently a vice president at the American Institutes of Research. From 2005-2008, he served as U.S. Commissioner of Education Statistics. He has written about a wide variety of education issues, and is currently focused on making information about college productivity more widely available.

Russ Whitehurst directs the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. He was the founding director of the Institute for Educational Sciences, where he was credited with having a transformational impact on the quality and rigor of research used and disseminated by the U.S. Department of Education.

You can learn more about the backgrounds and numerous contributions of all the members of our audit panel here.

We greatly appreciate the assistance provided by the Audit Panel and are looking forward to lively and challenging discussions at its upcoming meeting.