Teacher Preparation Program Accountability:
New York

Analysis of New York's policies

New York's approval process for teacher preparation programs does not hold programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce.

Most importantly, New York does not collect or report data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs.
The state also fails to collect other objective, meaningful data to measure the performance of teacher preparation programs, and it does not apply any transparent, measurable criteria for conferring program approval. New York gathers programs' annual summary licensure test pass rates (80 percent of program completers must pass their licensure exams). Further regulations specify that the state will suspend a graduate-level program's ability to admit new students if less than 50 percent of program completers pass their licensure exams over a three-year period. However, the 80 percent pass-rate standard, while common among many states, sets the bar quite low and is not a meaningful measure of program performance, and the 50 percent pass rate is far too low a bar.

While the state's website does publicly provide programs' exam pass-rate data, it does not include a report card that allows the public to review and compare program performance.

In New York, there is some overlap of accreditation and state approval. In 2013, the state discontinued its Regents Accreditation of Teacher Education (RATE) process. The state now requires all preparation programs to be accredited by CAEP.

Citation

Regulations of the Commissioner of Education 8.II.A.52.21 2015 Laws of New York, Chapter 56, Section 210-b Higher education data reports http://data.nysed.gov/lists.php?type=higher www.ncate.org Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs http://www.highered.nysed.gov/ocue/accred/Edprogramaccred.html

Recommendations for New York

Collect data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs. 
As one way to measure whether programs are producing effective classroom teachers, New York 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, such as: 
1.    Evaluation results from the first and/or second year of teaching
2.    Satisfaction ratings by school principals and teacher supervisors of programs' student teachers, using a standardized form to permit program comparison
3.    Average raw scores of teacher candidates on licensing tests, including academic proficiency, subject matter and professional knowledge tests
4.    Number of times, on average, it takes teacher candidates to pass licensing tests
5.    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 the state to establish precise minimum standards for teacher preparation program performance for each category of data. New York should be mindful of setting rigorous standards for program performance, as its current requirement that 80 percent of program completers must pass their licensing exams 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. 
New York 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

New York was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis.

The state also asserted that it has several regulations and laws in place that hold programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce and that directly affect the approval process for teacher preparation programs. The state indicated that it has very extensive, explicit standards for program approval; that the Commissioner’s regulations define measure of program accountability; and that recent state law defines additional grounds for graduate level teacher and educational leadership program deregistration and suspension. The state also commented that the only acceptable professional education accrediting agency that the department has determined to have  standards equivalent to those put forth in state regulations is the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation. In November 2014, New York published exam pass rate data for all institutions preparing teachers and educational leaders. This website was established to allow the public to review and compare program performance and will continue to be revised over time.