Teacher Preparation Policy
Student Growth Data: As part of its state accountability system, West Virginia has codified specific reporting requirements that mirror CAEP's reporting requirements. Programs are required to collect and report data on the performance and effectiveness of program graduates as measured by the impact of completers' teaching on P-12 learning and development. Program are required to submit this data in an annual report to CAEP. However, the state does not specify the data that must be collected to satisfy this requirement, nor does state policy require teacher preparation programs to make this data publicly available.
Licensure Exam Pass Rates: West Virginia does not collect and publish meaningful pass rate data that inform a reasonable judgment of the performance of each approved teacher preparation
program, including first-time or final pass rate data for all test takers at the
program or institutional level.
Specify the type of data needed to connect student growth to teacher preparation programs, when those programs are large enough for the data to be meaningful and reliable.
While West Virginia, as a result of requiring the submission data identical to CAEP reporting requirements including program graduates' impact on student outcomes connected to the program they completed, the state should specify that this data should include objective measures, such as value-added on standardized tests.
Codify the publication of other meaningful data that reflect program performance.
West Virginia collects some objective, meaningful data on educator preparation program completers, but the state should require publishing these data as a matter of state law, rather than as a consequence of requiring an annual report to CAEP.
Publish first-time and final pass rate data at the program level for all test takers.
West Virginia should publicly report first-time and final pass rate data for all test
takers at the program level. Doing so allows the state, programs,
and prospective teacher candidates to analyze the strength of programs'
ability to prepare teachers in core content areas. Prospective teacher
candidates deserve access to relevant information to determine which
programs are most likely to enable them to earn a standard teaching
license.
West Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis; however, this analysis was updated subsequent to the state's review.
1C: Program Performance Measures
The state should examine a number of factors when measuring the performance of and approving teacher preparation programs.[1] 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.[2]
States have made great strides in building data systems with the capacity to provide evidence of teacher performance.[3] These same data systems can be used to link teacher effectiveness to the teacher preparation programs from which they came. States should make such data, as well as other objective measures that go beyond licensure test pass rates, central components of their teacher preparation program approval processes, and they should establish precise standards for performance that are more useful for accountability purposes.[4]
National accrediting bodies, such as CAEP, are raising the bar, but are no substitute for states' own policy. A number of states now have somewhat more rigorous academic standards for admission by virtue of requiring that programs meet CAEP's accreditation standards. However, whether CAEP will uniformly uphold its standards (especially as they have already backtracked on the GPA requirement) and deny accreditation to programs that fall short of these admission requirements remains to be seen.[5] Clear state policy would eliminate this uncertainty and send an unequivocal message to programs about the state's expectations.[6]