Earlier this month, the US Department of Education released its most recent report on teacher preparation programs and initial credentialing of new teachers across the country. The report compiles data collected from states from 2008-10, and seeks to map out things like the number of students enrolled in teacher prep programs and their demographics, successful completion rates of teacher prep programs (traditional and alternative), state policies on teacher prep program development and evaluation, and initial certification requirements.
Selected Findings
1. 71% of teacher prep programs are traditional, 21 % are IHE-based alternative programs, and 8% are alternative programs not based at an IHE.
2. During AY 2008-09, 235,138 students were enrolled in teacher prep programs, a 1% decrease from the previous year.
3. In 2010, all 50 states plus DC reported they had standards that prospective teachers must meet to attain initial certification. Additionally, in 43 states have policies that link, align or coordinate teacher certification standards with early learning standards.
4. In 2010, 28 states had teacher prep program evaluation criteria that included a component that considers the program’s progress in improving academic achievement for K-12 students. Additionally, 10 states reported having at least one at-risk or low-performing teacher prep programs (accounting for less than 2% of the total number of all programs across the country).
5. The proportion of teachers working with waivers of full certification has decreased, going from 1.5% in AY 2006-07 to 1.4% in 2007-08. However, teachers working with waived certification tend to be concentrated at high-poverty school districts, at nearly a 2-to-1 ratio with other school districts.
6. Not all states require assessments for initial certification, namely, Iowa and Montana. As of AY 2008-09, these states still did not require testing for initial certification.
To read the full report, please visit https://title2.ed.gov/TitleIIReport11.pdf
