Teacher Preparation Program Accountability:
Oregon

Analysis of Oregon's policies

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

In Oregon, programs must use data to evaluate evidence of teacher effectiveness. Units must have a system that collects and analyzes program completer performance and assures that candidates "provide evidence of effectiveness to foster student learning," which includes data on learning gains resulting from instruction, analyzed for each student and summarized in relation to students' level of knowledge prior to instruction; however, this is just for the student-teaching experience and  is not for completers.

Oregon does not apply any transparent, measurable criteria for conferring program approval. Further, in the past three years, just one program in the state has been identified as low performing, an additional indicator that programs lack accountability.

The state's website does not include a report card that allows the public to review and compare program performance.

In Oregon, national accreditation is required for program approval.

Citation

Oregon Administrative Rules 584-010, -017 Senate Bill 78 www.caepnet.org

Recommendations for Oregon

Collect data that connect student achievement gains to teacher preparation programs. 
As one way to measure whether programs are producing effective classroom teachers, Oregon 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 Oregon 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. 
Oregon 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.
Oregon 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

Oregon asserted that it requires all programs to be CAEP accredited, thus incorporating the mandatory data on candidate effectiveness.