NCTQ Teacher Prep Review Assesses ‘Landscape’ of Undergraduate Elementary Preparation
Today, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its latest installment in the Teacher Prep Review, “Landscape in Teacher Preparation: Undergraduate Elementary.” To those familiar with previous versions of the Review, NCTQ is publishing with a noticeably different approach this time – instead of one all-encompassing review of programs, NCTQ has chosen to release reports in five segments:
- December 2016 – Undergraduate Elementary
- Spring 2017 – Undergraduate Secondary
- Fall 2017 – Graduate and Nontraditional Elementary
- Spring 2018 – Graduate and Nontraditional Secondary
- Later in 2018 – Traditional Elementary and Secondary Special Education
Using what NCTQ labels as three key areas (admissions, knowledge, and practice), the current report provides an overview of findings regarding the state of undergraduate elementary teacher preparation. Based on a document review of 875 undergraduate elementary teacher preparation programs (396 public and 479 private colleges and universities, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia), NCTQ claims that overall, there is much room for improvement.
NCTQ recommends that programs, states, and K-12 schools utilize the findings in the Review to spur further improvements in these undergraduate elementary programs; they also encourage high school students and their guidance counselors to utilize the findings to help determine which programs to consider for their teacher training (presumably through NCTQ’s PathToTeach website launched in September 2015).
At the request of our members, AACTE has compiled and produced resources related to the NCTQ Review over the years, including a members-only Institutional Response Kit. These resources serve to bring more transparency to the review process, institutions’ history of interaction with NCTQ, and the collective concerns of the AACTE membership. For more information, see AACTE’s website, or contact me at zvanhouten@aacte.org.
Tags: elementary education, research, teacher quality
