The Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality and U.S. News and World Report announced last week that they would work together to review and rate teacher education in the nation’s 1,400 schools of education.
Each school that participates will be reviewed against 19 standards and graded on 17 of them. The standards have been revised from NCTQ’s earlier review of Illinois and Texas education schools. NCTQ’s Texas review was criticized by education school deans, who objected to the ratings being based on reviews of syllabi and materials culled from websites rather than in-depth visits to the schools.
The new reviews will include evaluations of course syllabi, textbooks and reading packets, student-teaching placement information, admissions standards, course requirements, and graduate and employer surveys, NCTQ said.