Grading Teacher Education

The State of Michigan has developed an interesting accountability and reporting system for that state's teacher education programs:

The Michigan Board of Education unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that will grade the state's college and university schools of education by issuing annual report cards -- part of a series of changes backers hope will ensure high-quality teachers in every classroom.

The report cards will grade schools on programs; the number of graduates passing the teacher certification test; the number of students graduating in six years; surveys of school districts hiring teachers, and how well the college or university recruits minority students and math, science and special education teachers.

"These factors would tell us collectively about the overall performance of their teachers," said board Vice President John Austin.

As the program is phased in over the next three years, schools that get failing grades on the new report cards could receive help from the Department of Education. It's also possible that federal funding or even the schools' certification as teacher training institutions could be affected.

Read the whole thing.

Currently, the graduates of Rochester College are earning the highest grade with 100% passing the teacher certification test while only 41% of Marygrove College's alumni are making the grade.

I think that this data would be even more interesting if the state of Michigan tracked (and published) the percentage of each school's graduates who actually landed teaching jobs within a year or two of graduating.

And it goes without saying that the data would be a whole lot more interesting if they kept track of the percentage of each college's graduates who quit teaching within 5 years of entering the classroom. ---------------------------See our latest education-related entries right here. Visit today's edition of The Carnival of Education, guest hosted by What It's Like on the Inside.