At the beginning of next year, Georgia’s teacher training programs will be able to see how they stack up nationally. The National Council on Teacher Quality and U.S. News & World Report are teaming up to rank every education program at colleges and universities across the country. Programs will be given letter grades of A-F. NCTQ president Kate Walsh says they’ll be judged on four main components.
“We’re looking at how selective an institution is; what kind of coursework they take to become a teacher in their subject area; for their student teaching, whether they’re assigned to someone who him or herself is a great teacher; and then we look at outcome data,” she says.
Walsh admits measuring outcomes is a challenge. Georgia, for example, is revamping its teacher evaluation system. And models vary by state. But, she says, a new national ranking system is needed, since past accreditation methods haven’t been effective.
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