Teacher Preparation Program Accountability:
Rhode Island

Analysis of Rhode Island's policies

Rhode Island recently adopted teacher preparation program standards that now require approved programs to produce effective educators, based on evaluation performance. Candidates must "demonstrate a positive impact on student learning on all applicable measures and demonstrate strong ratings on measures of professional practice and responsibilities." 

Rhode Island also relies on other objective, meaningful data to measure the performance of teacher preparation programs. The state requires that programs "engage in regular and systematic evaluations (including, but not limited to, information obtained through student assessment, and collection of data from students, recent graduates, and other members of the professional community)." Regrettably, Rhode Island does not apply any transparent, measurable criteria for conferring program approval.

Commendably, Rhode Island makes its findings available by posting the data and program grades on its website.

According to its Race to the Top updated information, once data system upgrades take full effect, the state will be able to assess teacher preparation programs based on effectiveness data. Rhode Island is on track to create a preliminary teacher preparation report card by 2013-2014, which it will make public by fall 2014. 

There is some overlap of accreditation and state approval. Although NCATE/CAEP and the state conduct concurrent on-site reviews, Rhode Island delegates its subject-matter program review process to NCATE/CAEP. 

Citation

Program Approval Standards http://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Teachers-and-Administrators-Excellent-Educators/Educator-Certification/Cert-main-page/RIPA_Standards_for_Public_Comment-DRAFT.pdf Program Approval Process http://www.ride.ri.gov/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Teachers-and-Administrators-Excellent-Educators/Educator-Certification/Becoming-an-Educator/Round-3-Guidelines-Final-01-08-09.pdf Title II State Reports https://title2.ed.gov Race to the Top http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/performance/rhode-island-year-2.pdf www.ncate.org

Recommendations for Rhode Island

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 all programs are preparing teachers for the classroom. Rhode Island should expand its requirements to its alternate routes and also include such measures as:  

1.   Satisfaction ratings by school principals and teacher supervisors of programs' student teachers, using a standardized form to permit program comparison;

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. 

In order to make use of the data Rhode Island already collects and publishes for accountability purposes, it is critical that the state establish minimum standards for teacher preparation program performance for each category of data. Programs should be held accountable for meeting rigorous standards, and there should be consequences for failing to do so, including loss of program approval.

Maintain full authority over teacher preparation program approval.

Rhode Island 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

Rhode Island was helpful in providing NCTQ with the facts necessary for this analysis. The state added that it does not use any of the NCATE process information for state approval, and that it conducts its own review of those areas. Any program wishing to seek national accreditation does so voluntarily, and they have always been separate decisions, with separate evidence. Rhode Island has always maintained full authority about approval and has never allowed any NCATE decision to influence a state decision. Only two programs even seek NCATE accreditation.