Too many teacher prep programs at the undergraduate level don’t demand enough of prospective high school teachers, particularly when it comes to teaching specific topics within the broad fields of science and social studies.
That is one of the key findings of a new report released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality, or NCTQ — a stalwart in the push to improve the quality and competency of America’s teachers.
The report — which examines entrance requirements and other elements of some 700 or so undergraduate programs that prepare high school teachers — characterizes the situation as “distressing.” The report notes that only about three in five teacher prep programs — 57 percent, to be precise — “adequately cover the subject content that both science and social studies teachers will need to teach.”
“Programs are inconsistent in their attention to content,” the report states. “They often do well preparing science teachers but not as well preparing social studies teachers — or vice versa.”
The report seeks to rank teacher prep programs and found about 16 deserved the distinction of being a “top tier” program “because they have solid admission standards, provide sufficient preparation in each candidate’s intended subject area, and show them how best to teach that subject.”
However, one critic of the report cautions against making too much of its findings because the report fails to delineate what students actually experience at various teacher prep programs at colleges and universities throughout the nation.
“NCTQ continues to spend a tremendous amount of time and energy examining documents and policies related to teacher-preparation programs, and this work usually uncovers nuggets of interesting data,” said Benjamin Riley, executive director of Deans for Impact, an organization that is seeking to improve teacher prep in the United States.
