By Liv Finne
June 20, 2013
The National Council on Teacher Quality released its first annual report, “Teacher Prep Review,” a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of the colleges and universities that train the nation’s teachers. Using a four-star rating system, the Review assesses the 1,130 institutions that train 99% of schoolteachers.
The study finds that three-quarters of teacher-training institutions in the U.S. earned only two stars. Researchers found that these institutions "have become an industry of mediocrity, churning out first-year teachers with classroom management skills and content knowledge inadequate to thrive in classrooms with ever-increasing ethnic and socioeconomic diversity."
Out of Washington state’s 24 teacher-training institutions, only one made the Honor Roll of 3 stars or better: Washington State University’s undergraduate preparation program for high school teachers. Two schools in Washington made the Consumer Alert list of the nation’s lowest-performing programs: the University of Washington’s graduate programs for high school teachers in Bothell and Tacoma. Read More >>