Teacher Prep Review Spotlights Problems in Massachusetts

Today, on the 20^th anniversary of the signing of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, the National Council on Teacher Quality(NCTQ) released a report that has the same game-changing potential to bring about education reforms that will propel our schools and children forward.  The report, Teacher Prep Review:  A Review of the Nation’s Teacher Preparation Programs, focuses on four critical areas of teacher preparation: 1) the selection criteria used by the institution for admitting candidates, 2) preparation in subject areas, 3) practice teaching, and 4) evidence of institutional outcomes.

The results released today in U.S. News and World Report make it clear – we have a problem at the very root of our education system.

“Through an exhaustive and unprecedented examination of how these schools operate, the Review finds they have become an industry of mediocrity, churning out first-year teachers with classroom management skills and content knowledge inadequate to thrive in classrooms with ever-increasing ethnic and socioeconomic student diversity.”

NCTQ generated a lot of controversy just for conducting the study, which MBAE endorsed, and deserves credit for persevering despite the obstacles it faced – including, as Director of the project Arthur McKee postedpreviously, from our own state’s institutions.  Although 35 Massachusetts institutions were included in the review, full information is only available for 14 with partial information for the remaining 21 programs.  Critics should look hard at how the review was conducted and at the standards applied.

Massachusetts is cited for “high expectations for what elementary teachers need to know across the board and uses top-notch tests for reading instruction and elementary mathematics”.   And, Fitchburg  State and Gordon College made the Honor Roll with three out of four stars.  But those of us who are used to hearing that Bay State education tops the nation will be disappointed to learn that this isn’t true for teacher preparation.  Among the sobering statistics are:

• SELECTIVITY IN ADMISSIONS – The Review found that only 24% of elementary and secondary programs in Massachusetts restrict admissions to the top half of the college-going population, compared to 28 % nationwide. Countries where students consistently outperform the U.S. typically set an even higher bar, with teacher prep programs recruiting candidates from the top third of the college-going population.83 programs across the country earn a Strong Design designation on this standard because they are both selective and diverse, although no such programs were found in Massachusetts.
• EARLY READING INSTRUCTION – Just 13% of evaluated elementary programs in Massachusetts are preparing teacher candidates in effective, scientifically based reading instruction, less than half the percentage of the small minority of programs (29%) providing such training nationally. The Commonwealth should find this especially alarming given that Massachusetts requires elementary teacher candidates to pass one of the most rigorous tests of scientifically based reading instruction in the country.
• OUTCOME DATA – Only 4% of Massachusetts’ evaluated programs earn four stars for collecting data on their graduates, compared to 26% of evaluated programs in the national sample. 46% of Massachusetts’ evaluated programs entirely fail this standard, compared to just 17% that do so across the country. The state does not connect student achievement data to teacher preparation programs, administer surveys of graduates and employers or require administration of teacher performance assessments (TPAs), and programs have not taken the initiative to collect any such data on their own.

Research from a variety of sources has confirmed that, “No school-based factor has more impact on our students’ success than the quality of our teachers. The preparation teachers receive has a crucial impact on their performance in the classroom.”  If we want to improve education, we have to focus on the teachers and school leaders who instruct our kids.  MBAE will be reviewing this report closely and we hope you will too.  Together, we must demand action from our teacher prep programs – and accountability for the performance of their graduates.