99 results found
In the past four years, almost every state has lowered its standards for entry into teaching. I know this all too well, as I was a policymaker in one of...
Apprenticeships offer a promising model to help expand and diversify the teacher workforce. But NCTQ President Heather Peske cautions: We're long on enthusiasm for apprenticeships and short on the details...
For states to succeed in their efforts to improve reading instruction, they must ensure teachers are prepared to implement and sustain scientifically based reading instruction.
NCTQ's Teacher Quality Bulletin distills the latest education research into clear, actionable information for education leaders. From topics like effective reading instruction to teacher diversity, here are the posts that...
In a new analysis, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) finds that most states (29 states and the District of Columbia) use a weak elementary teacher reading licensure test,...
As states quicklyshifted requirements for teacher licensure in the early days of the pandemic,some also saw an opportunity to learn from the responses they put in place.
New research examines the impact of career and technical education teachers who entered the profession through different pathways.
https://www.nctq.org/blog/Gambling-with-childrens-futuresand-no-ones-tracking-whether-we-win-or-lose
Almost no one is tracking the impact recent policy decisions have on student learning and how they perpetuate educational inequity.
What if states applied the "seat belt" policy approach to solving our current mathematics education crisis?
The most-read Teacher Quality Bulletin posts of 2022 reflect the questions, overturned assumptions, and trade-offs that face education leaders.
Temporary gains accompanied by longer-term challenges.
A new RAND Corporation survey asked teachers what would be the most effective strategies to recruit and retain more teachers of color.
Who wants someone who has not demonstrated their knowledge and skills to be trusted with landing the plane? Teaching is no different.
Many states are moving to eliminate existing measures of content knowledge for aspiring teachers, citing concerns around possible teacher shortages.
These states' efforts illustrate multiple approaches to help aspiring teachers to mitigate the cost burden of testing fees.
Building a more diverse teacher workforce is essential to addressing educational inequity for students of color. In this analysis, NCTQ considers teacher licensure test pass rate data through the lenses...
Improving instruction in elementary mathematics is critical to supporting better academic and life outcomes for our students. While weak elementary math instruction is not a new challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic...
Doing this job has been the privilege of a lifetime, shaping and championing better teacher policies across the nation.
It's high time to implement specific and strategic policies to address teacher shortages.
NCTQ President Kate Walsh hosts a panel discussion on how the edTPA affects the teaching profession with leading researchers in the field of educator preparation.
Our nation's educators and students are exhausted and embattled, but not beaten.
Elementary teachers have a big job. Unlike secondary teachers, they need to know not just one subject well, but four. Elementary teachers are expected to teach English language arts, math,...
- Updated August 2021 - Most states continue to lack a comprehensive set of policies to improve teacher knowledge of evidence-based early reading methods. This excerpt from NCTQ's State of...
Twenty three years after the U.S. Congress first tried to dislodge the pass rates on teacher licensing tests, the dam has been broken.
Elementary teachers need to know the content they will teach.
The NCTQ publication of long-hidden data on institutional pass rates for elementary content teacher licensure tests serves as a compass, pointing toward strengths and opportunities in preparing aspiring elementary teachers...
Information gleaned from licensure tests can offer a compass, guiding efforts to strengthen and diversify the teacher workforce.
Strengthening our teacher workforce begins with better, more transparent data.
Do state policies have an impact on who enters teacher preparation and what is the impact of program' admissions requirements on teacher candidate enrollment?
With the significant infusion of dollars now available to both states and school districts, we have a unique opportunity to finally reduce high rates of illiteracy, particularly in populations which...
Lo and behold, it turns out that stricter certification requirements do appear to pay off—but not for the reasons that have all that much to do with what happens inside...
NCTQ examines state policy trends that govern some of the most essential aspects of teacher preparation, from reading and content knowledge licensure exams to admissions and basic skills test requirements.
No longer is it appropriate to decouple the goal of improving teacher quality from parallel efforts to increase the number of Black and Hispanic teachers. What's left to argue about...
All but four states in the nation now permit teachers to come into the profession through an "alternate route," compared to only a few 30 years ago. Alternate routes into...
Are teacher licensing tests a milestone to achieve or an obstacle to be removed?
Some excellent recent research and analysis from William Furey and Education Next exposes that more than half of states continue to endorse learning styles by including them in licensure tests...
Although districts reopening schools virtually may have less need for substitute teachers due to teachers' reduced exposure to illness, districts reopening in-person need more substitutes than normal, as social distance...
Some sensible solutions sometimes turn out to be counterproductive. A prime example may exist in Washington state, which recently instituted a policy requiring new special education teachers to pursue a...
Learning how to read is not something that comes naturally. Many children need instruction from their teachers that follows the research on the most effective and efficient methods of teaching...
States must now consider how these coronavirus-related closures are impacting student teaching and other licensure requirements.
The settlement agreement in CA still tiptoes around the most likely reason these kids aren't reading.
https://www.nctq.org/publications/NCTQ-Databurst:-Licensure-Requirements-for-Out--of--State-Teachers
New data from the National Council on Teacher Quality reveal that the majority of states do not ask for evidence of prior successful teaching for those teachers coming from out...
Perhaps this headline seems self-evident, but the backlash against licensure tests suggests otherwise.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm thinking that these two images should have long ago put an immediate end to any debate over what teachers need to...
Do you want to know the GPA requirements for admission and the number and types of tests aspiring teachers have to pass from admission through program completion? Explore Basic Undergraduate...
Prospective teacher candidates should make informed decisions about which teacher preparation programs are likely to best prepare them to succeed on their licensure tests and in the classroom. However, too...
Peppered with plenty of advice from practicing teachers, Start Here to Become a Teacher provides advice to people interested in teaching and allows aspiring educators to more wisely "comparison shop"...
https://www.nctq.org/blog/Steps-to-help-create-a-stronger,-more-diverse-elementary-teacher-workforce
School districts currently hire about 70,000 new elementary teachers each year, with the expectation that these teachers are ready to teach the standard elementary curriculum of English language arts, mathematics,...
There's a big push inmany states and among the edu-policy crowd to do away teacher licensing tests.
In A Fair Chance: Simple steps to strengthen and diversify the teacher workforce, NCTQ analysis reveals both astonishingly high numbers of elementary teacher candidates failing their professional licensing tests each...
This study examines all 50 states' and the District of Columbia's requirements regarding the science of reading for elementary and special education teacher candidates.
As many states struggle to staff all their classrooms, they might want to examine the degree to which their own policies discourage qualified teachers from applying.
See how states fared on our policy goals for licensure reciprocity in 2017.
NCTQ's bi-annual 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook grades states on how well their programs and policies raise the quality of the teachers in their schools. The 2017 Yearbook evaluates states...
Despite how some organizations tend to discuss teacher supply, the United States doesn't have just one teacher labor market, but at least 50. Why is the labor market so fragmented?...
This is the final installment in a series exploring secondary certifications, state licensing tests, and the subject matter preparation that teacher prep programs provide future high school teachers. This fourth...
Over the last few months, a whole bunch of states -- including Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, New York, and Wisconsin -- have tried to lower their requirements for...
As has been previously detailed, secondary certification is a hot mess, and looking at state-mandated licensing tests adds yet another layer of complexity.
A good secondary teacher prep program has two basic functions: first, to ensure that teacher candidates graduate knowing the content of the subject in which they will become certified; and...
The National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) evaluation of 717 undergraduate programs preparing high school teachers found that many programs do well preparing teachers in some subjects but fall short...
NCTQ's new report on teacher prep programs provides an updated perspective on how well some 700 colleges and universities are preparing high school teachers. While it is certainly no easier...
There are nearly as many arrangements of science and social studies certifications as there are states, which is somewhat astonishing considering almost all high school students take the same core...
There is a seemingly simple path to high school certification: complete a major in the subject you want to teach while taking a few courses like classroom management and methods...
The fact that many of Nebraska's schools lack enough teachers, particularly in fields like science, mathematics, and special education, is likely not news to most. Year after year, nearly all...
Today, New York's State Board of Regents is considering doing away with a recentlyadopted licensing test for teacher candidates, amid concerns that the too many blackand Latino teacher candidates fail...
Some people ask if the quality of teacher preparation matters at all.
We've made some changes to the Review- here's the what and the why.
Licensure tests:depending on who you ask, they're either an important check on a prospectiveteacher's knowledge before entering the profession or a burdensome requirementthat keeps good candidates out of the classroom.
Of late, I've been holding my own internal debate. Is getting states to change their teacher policies worth all the time and effort that it takes x 50?
For many people, the call to teach isn't heard until after they've received their college degree. At times this change can be overwhelming due to the various programs and types...
https://www.nctq.org/blog/Three-reasons-why-every-teacher-prep-program-should-adopt-the-edTPAor-not.
Over the last few decades, the field of teacher educationhas heavily promoted the use and even the mandatory adoption by states ofstandardized assessments that can be used to judge how...
A year ago a group of 20 out-of-state teachers filed a lawsuitin Minnesota over the state's teacherlicensing regulations which they claimed were inconsistent and incoherent. Thestate's Office of the Legislative...
See how states fared on our policy goals for licensure advancement.
See how states fared on our policy goals for emergency licensure.
"It should not take this long."A simple sentiment, but one that likely resonates with almost any teacher who has ever moved to a new state only to then engage in...
Raising standards is hard. But as painful as it is todecide that not everyone is cut out to teach or that some candidates aren'tprepared well enough to do so, the...
Doteacher education journals seek to help teacher educators do a better job? It seemslike a fairly silly question. Nevertheless, we reviewed 10 prominent teacher edjournals and learned that, for the...
When I was in college, several of my coursesrequired the purchase of what the professors indicated were canonical texts.Calculus required Apostol's Calculus Volumes1 and 2.Electricity and magnetism used Jackson's ClassicalElectrodynamics....
When wefirst began analyzing teacher prep programs for the Teacher Prep Review, we were surprised to find some really bigdifferences in how well programs housed on the same campus did...
The State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides detailed analysis of any and every state policy that impacts the teaching profession. The Yearbook is a 52-volume encyclopedia (51 state reports including the...
Interim editions of the Yearbook provide shorter briefs for each state that include a state-specific action plan, updating states' progress on Yearbook goals and giving advice on how to prioritize...
Interim editions of the Yearbook provide shorter briefs for each state that include a state-specific action plan, updating states' progress on Yearbook goals and giving advice on how to prioritize...
The State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides detailed analysis of any and every state policy that impacts the teaching profession. The Yearbook is a 52-volume encyclopedia (51 state reports including the...
As a companion to last year's comprehensive state-by-state analysis, the 2010 edition provides each state with an individualized Blueprint for Change, building off last year's Yearbook goals and recommendations.
NCTQ's analysis of science-teacher licensure policies in every state of the union reveals that most offer loopholes allowing high school teachers to teach specific subjects without adequate preparation. Eleven states...
As a follow up to NCTQ's national studies of how well elementary teachers are prepared to teach reading and mathematics, NCTQ looks at preparation in both subjects in all undergraduate...
State laws and regulations can either help or hinder the ability of school districts to hire effective teachers for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. State officials wanting to...
NCTQ Releases Study of Reading Preparation in Indiana Education Schools: As a follow up to NCTQ's national study on how well elementary teachers are prepared to teach reading, NCTQ looks...
American students' chronically poor performance in mathematics on international tests may begin in the earliest grades, handicapped by the weak knowledge of mathematics of their own elementary teachers. NCTQ looks...
In this groundbreaking report, NCTQ studied a large representative sampling of ed schools to find out what future elementary teachers are and are not learning about reading instruction. The report,...
For all the conflict generated by various K-12 education reform efforts, there is one principle everyone agrees on: teachers need to know the subject matter they teach. This principle makes...
The importance of good teaching to the academic success of students is intuitively obvious to any parent and is well substantiated by a body of sound research. Correspondingly, ensuring that...