Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
New Jersey's approval process for its traditional and alternate route teacher preparation programs could do more to hold programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce.
For its university-based preparation-program approval process, New Jersey requires that "where relevant, P-12 student achievement data" is used, but the state currently does not offer additional details to outline how these data are used during the program approval process.
The state also relies on some other objective, meaningful data to measure the performance of university-based teacher preparation programs, including the following documentation for its preparation program approval process:
Collect data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs.
As one way to measure whether programs are producing effective classroom teachers, New Jersey 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.
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. New Jersey should be mindful of setting rigorous standards for program performance. Programs should be held accountable for meeting these standards, and there should be consequences for failing to do so, including loss of program approval.
Maintain full authority over the process for approving teacher preparation programs.
New Jersey should not cede its authority and must 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.
New Jersey indicated that when it released its latest Educator Preparation Provider Annual Report in August 2015, the version of the reports shared directly with preparation programs included effectiveness ratings for all teachers, for the first time. This data is based in part on student achievement data (Student Growth Percentiles and Student Growth Objectives). In keeping with the state’s approach to building these data systems and reports in a thoughtful, methodical manner that emphasizes collaboration with institutions of higher education, this evaluation data will be released only to deans and directors in this year’s report. Subsequent reports will make this data available to the public.
The state also commented that it is proposing significant shifts in alternate route teacher programs in the latest regulatory package. At the current time, these programs are structured in a way that makes reports impossible to create at the program level; however, once the shifts are made (by 2017-2018), the state will have the ability to create reports for each alternate route program.
The state asserted that it already maintains full authority over the process for approving teacher preparation programs. In addition, beginning in Fall 2015, the state launched a revised application and review process.
Lastly, the state noted that it is building a multistep program-approval process, which includes an internal review by the NJDOE, as well as a review by the State Program Approval Council, which consists of representation from prep programs as well as the K-12 community.
It is clear that New Jersey intends to include teacher evaluation data as part of its program approval process and that ensuring accuracy and correct use of this data is of utmost importance to the state. NCTQ looks forward to reviewing the state's progress in future editions of the Yearbook.
States need to hold
programs accountable for the quality of their graduates.
The state should examine a number of factors when measuring
the performance of and approving teacher preparation programs. Although the
quality of both the subject-matter preparation and professional sequence is
crucial, there are also additional measures that can provide the state and the
public with meaningful, readily understandable indicators of how well programs
are doing when it comes to preparing teachers to be successful in the
classroom.
States have made great strides in building data systems with
the capacity to provide evidence of teacher performance. These same data can be used to provide
objective evidence of the performance of teacher preparation programs. States should make such data, as well as
other objective measures that go beyond licensure pass rates, a central
component of their teacher preparation program approval processes, and they
should establish precise standards for performance that are more useful for
accountability purposes.
Teacher Preparation Program Accountability: Supporting Research
For
discussion of teacher preparation program approval see Andrew Rotherham and S. Mead's
chapter "Back to the Future: The History and Politics of State Teacher Licensure and Certification." in A Qualified Teacher in Every
Classroom. (Harvard Education Press, 2004).
For
evidence of how weak state efforts to hold teacher preparation programs
accountable are, see data on programs identified as low-performing in the U.S.
Department of Education,The Secretary's
Seventh Annual Report on Teacher Quality 2010 at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/teachprep/t2r7.pdf.
For
additional discussion and research of how teacher education programs can add
value to their teachers, see NCTQ's, Teacher Prep Review, available at
http://www.nctq.org/p/edschools.
For
a discussion of the lack of evidence that national accreditation status
enhances teacher preparation programs' effectiveness, see D. Ballou and M.
Podgursky, "Teacher Training and Licensure: A Layman's Guide,"
in Better Teachers, Better Schools, eds. Marci Kanstoroom and Chester
E. Finn., Jr., (Washington, D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1999), pp. 45-47. See
also No Common Denominator: The Preparation of Elementary Teachers in Mathematics by America's Education Schools(NCTQ, 2008) and What Education Schools Aren't Teaching About Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning (NCTQ, 2006).
See NCTQ,
Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative (2007) regarding the dearth of accountability data states
require of alternate route programs.