Teacher Preparation Program Accountability:
Mississippi

Analysis of Mississippi's policies

Mississippi'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, Mississippi 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. It requires an annual "teacher education performance report," with one component consisting of a job-satisfaction survey rating the job performance of all first-year teachers. Programs that do not receive a satisfactory rating of 80 percent over a three-year period must prepare a plan of improvement. Mississippi also collects programs' annual summary licensure test pass rates (80 percent of program completers must pass their licensure exams). This 80 percent pass-rate standard, while common among many states, sets the bar quite low and is not a meaningful measure of program performance.

However, the state does not collect these data for its alternate routes. Further, there is no evidence that the state's standards for program approval are resulting in greater accountability. In the past three years, no programs in Mississippi have been identified in required federal reporting as low performing.

Mississippi is in the process of implementing an online data dashboard for posting performance and demographic data on teacher preparation programs. However, it is currently not accessible.  

In Mississippi, there is some overlap of accreditation and state approval. Members of NCATE/CAEP and the state make up the review team and decisions are made jointly; state members must complete NCATE/CAEP training. Mississippi delegates its subject-matter program review process to NCATE/CAEP. Programs must align with NCATE/CAEP standards. National accreditation may be substituted for state approval. 

Citation

2006 Process Guide http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/docs/educator-licensure/process-and-performance-reviews-2006.pdf?sfvrsn=0 Title II State Reports https://title2.ed.gov www.ncate.org

Recommendations for Mississippi

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

As one way to measure whether programs are producing effective classroom teachers, Mississippi 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. Mississippi should expand its requirements to also 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;

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

4.    Five-year retention rates of graduates in the teaching profession.

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 Mississippi to establish precise minimum standards for teacher preparation program performance for each category of data. Illinois should be mindful of setting rigorous standards for program performance, as its current requirement that 80 percent of program graduates pass the state's licensing tests is too low a bar. Programs should be held accountable for meeting rigorous 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. 

Mississippi 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.  

Maintain full authority over teacher preparation program approval.

Mississippi should ensure that it is the state that considers the evidence of program performance and makes the decision about whether programs should continue to be authorized to prepare teachers. 

State response to our analysis

Mississippi recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it is in the process of reporting data that connects student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs. The state also indicated that Mississippi's Commission on Teacher and Administrator Education, Certification and Licensure and Development is responsible for the approval of state programs. All programs must be approved by NCATE in addition to receiving approval of the Commission. 

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