The Education Trust released a set of recommendations last week focused on the teacher-preparation-accountability provisions of the federal Higher Education Act, which is up for reauthorization.
The HEA requires each state to come up with a way of designating programs that are “at risk” or “low performing.”
The Education Trust, which advocates on behalf of low-income and minority students, notes that programs with low ratings can, under federal law, lose federal financial aid if the state subsequently withdraws its approval from those programs. The problem, it says, is that the law doesn’t require states to act in that way; few, if any, ever have.
Many of the advocacy group’s recommendations for the HEA align with policy developments already occurring in the field, such as requiring programs that prepare teachers to be more selective and to take student outcomes into account. The Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation recently approved standards to that end, and the U.S. Department of Education’s forthcoming teacher-preparation regulations, which have been delayed for nearly a year, are also expected to include them.
