Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Lack of Reporting on Teacher Preparation Fails to Safeguard Public Interest

  • 05/09/19

Washington, D.C. – A new Databurst from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Maintaining strong elementary content requirements for prospective teachers, documents the fact that 49 states do not publish the elementary content state licensing test data that the public needs. These data would reveal programs' varying first-time pass rates, which would provide important information to aspiring elementary teachers about program quality. States instituted these tests to ensure that aspiring elementary teachers have a firm grasp of mathematics, English language arts, science, and social studies and candidates who do not ultimately pass the test will not qualify for a standard teaching license. 

While federal law requires that states report licensure test pass rates for their teacher preparation program completers, programs may define “program completers” as those candidates who have both finished the program requirements and passed their licensure tests—disregarding the sometimes significant numbers of candidates who fail their tests. The result is that programs and states are able to accurately report extremely high “pass rates”, even though their actual pass rates may be a fraction of what they report. 

Recent NCTQ analysis of ETS data for the most common elementary content licensure test revealed that fewer than half of aspiring elementary teachers pass this test the first time they take it, and the pass rate after multiple attempts is still only 72 percent. Failure to publicly report first-time and final pass rate data for all test takers—not just “program completers”—in elementary teacher preparation programs has meant that insufficiencies of teacher preparation programs remain hidden from the public. 

“The lack of transparency in the data states and programs report obscures the reality of variation in program quality,” said NCTQ President Kate Walsh. “This is a consumer protection issue. Aspiring teachers deserve to know which programs are most likely to help them be prepared both to pass their licensing tests and for the classroom.”

In addition to details on each state’s pass rate reporting, the NCTQ analysis includes a review of the quality of each state’s required elementary content licensure test. These tests vary significantly in quality, with fewer than half of states (22) requiring aspiring elementary teachers to pass separately scored subtests in each core content area. Without such subtests, strong knowledge in one core content area may compensate for deficiencies in another.

See the full NCTQ data, analysis, and recommendations for all 50 states and the District of Columbia here.

Featured

  • Rethinking K-12 Schools as a Continuous Learning Experience

    Most students move through three or more separate facilities during their K-12 journey, yet the built environments they encounter at each stage have traditionally been designed in isolation, with little continuity in spatial language, learning philosophy, or physical resources. Each new school is a reset with different layouts, learning models, expectations, and ways of moving through a building. The next generation of school design is making the case that the first day of kindergarten and the last day of high school can and should feel connected through common support systems and infrastructure in the physical environment.

  • Montclair State University Debuts New VR Facility

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently announced the completion of a new virtual reality learning facility developed in partnership with Dreamscape Learn, according to a news release. The 2,450-square-foot lab space is inside the College of Communication and Media building and will serve students pursuing careers in digital media, virtual reality, and content creation.

  • California District Opens New Continuation High School

    The Fort Bragg Unified School District (FBUSD) in Fort Bragg, Calif., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Noyo High School, a continuation high school that provides alternative education options for students in grades 6–12, according to a news release. The district partnered with Quattrochi Kwok Architects for design and FRC Inc. for construction, and the project’s funding came from Local Bond Measure B.

  • DLR Group Hires Three for Higher Education Practice

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has brought three new hires on board to help shape its higher education practice in California and the northeast, according to a press release.