Teacher Preparation Program Accountability:
Missouri

Analysis of Missouri's policies

Missouri's approval process for its traditional and alternate route teacher preparation programs does not hold programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce.

Most importantly, Missouri does not collect or report data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs.

The state does rely on some objective, meaningful data to measure the performance of traditional teacher preparation programs. Missouri collects retention rates of teachers as well as satisfaction ratings by school principals and teacher supervisors of student teachers using a standardized form to permit program comparison. The results are reported to the state board annually.

According to the new Missouri Standards for Professional Educators, the state will rely on an Annual Performance Report for Educator Preparation Programs (APR-EPP) to determine whether programs are meeting the six program standards. Tentative assessments include connections to student growth, teachers and school leader surveys, retention and the state's model evaluation system. The state must still approve the assessment to be used in the development of the APR-EPP. 

Missouri also collects programs' annual summary licensure test pass rates (70 percent of program completers must pass their licensure exams). Regrettably, the 70 percent pass-rate standard sets the bar quite low and is not a meaningful measure of program performance. Further, in the past three years, no programs in the state have been identified as low performing—an additional indicator that programs lack accountability. Missouri does not collect these data for its alternate route programs. 

The state's website does not include a report card that allows the public to review and compare program performance; it merely provides a link to the information posted by Title II. 

Missouri maintains control over its approval process. 

Citation

Missouri Standards for the Preparation of Educators http://dese.mo.gov/eq/ep/MoSTEP/documents/MoSPEStandards.pdf 5 CSR 20-400.300 Title II State Reports https://title2.ed.gov

Recommendations for Missouri

Collect data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs. 

As one way to measure whether programs are producing effective classroom teachers, Missouri should consider the academic achievement gains of students taught by programs' graduates, averaged over the first three years of teaching. Data that are aggregated to the institution (e.g., combining elementary and secondary programs) rather than disaggregated to the specific preparation program are not useful for accountability purposes. Such aggregation can mask significant differences in performance among programs.

Gather other meaningful data that reflect program performance. 

Although measures of student growth are an important indicator of program effectiveness, they cannot be the sole measure of program quality for several reasons, including the fact that many programs may have graduates whose students do not take standardized tests. The accountability system must therefore include other objective measures that show how well programs are preparing teachers for the classroom. Missouri should include such measures as: 

1.    Evaluation results from the first and/or second year of teaching;

2.    Average raw scores of teacher candidates on licensing tests, including academic proficiency, subject matter and professional knowledge tests; and

3.    Number of times, on average, it takes teacher candidates to pass licensing tests.

Establish the minimum standard of performance for each category of data. 

Merely collecting the types of data described above is insufficient for accountability purposes. The next and perhaps more critical step is for the state to establish precise minimum standards for teacher preparation program performance for each category of data. Programs should then be held accountable for meeting these standards, and there should be consequences for failing to do so, including loss of program approval.

Publish an annual report card on the state's website. 

Missouri should produce an annual report card that shows all the data the state collects on individual teacher preparation programs, which should be published on the state's website at the program level for the sake of public transparency. Data should be presented in a manner that clearly conveys whether programs have met performance standards.  

State response to our analysis

Missouri recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it will generate and publish an annual performance report for every program in every educator preparation program in the state and will include looking at student performance. Initial data points include: grade point average (content), Praxis II scores to be replaced by content assessment scores, and beginning teacher and principal survey results. 

Missouri also noted that additional data will be added as new assessments are developed and implemented, and that its Technical Advisory Committee provided feedback on how to establish these benchmarks.