Article archive / August 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 12. Source pages: 4.
In a July 11 press release, the Louisiana Board of Regents said that the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has identified teacher preparation programs in Louisiana as leading the nation in several areas as reported in the NCTQ Teacher Prep Review 2014 Report.
Northwestern State University and Louisiana State University were ranked in the top 10 nationally for all elementary teacher preparation programs and Southeastern Louisiana University was ranked in the top 30 nationally for all secondary teacher preparation programs, the press release noted.
Also according to the report, 89% of Louisiana’s teacher preparation programs met a NCTQ standard pertaining to systematically collecting and monitoring data on their graduates and making changes to improve their programs. The national average is 27%.
During the years 2001 to 2011, Board of Regents worked closely with Dr. George Noell, LSU Professor and licensed school psychologist. Noell worked to develop a model over the years to create an empirically based model that could help understand and modify key aspects of teacher preparation in the state. Called the Value-Added Teacher Preparation Program Assessment Model, the work included a number of stages and studies, designed to understand the characteristics of teachers, schools, and teacher preparation, in order to help predict and improve student outcomes.
After large-scale data collection and analysis, Dr. Noell reported to the Regents he had attained stable results when using the model. The program was piloted during 2003 to 2006, and implemented during 2006 to 2009. Results were disseminated to the public and show that some teacher preparation programs have prepared new teachers whose students’ learning is comparable to the learning of students taught by experienced teachers.
Following this, the Louisiana Department of Education adapted the Value-Added Teacher Preparation Assessment to create a value-added teacher evaluation model to assess practicing teachers in grades 4-9 and transitioned between the models. Dr. Noell and Dr. Kristin Gansle provided the transition committee with technical support for the efforts.
Louisiana was one of the first states in the nation to recognize the need to create a more rigorous teacher certification structure and a more rigorous teacher preparation approval process. As a result of changes to Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and Board of Regents policies, all public and private universities redesigned their programs from 2001-2010, noted the July 11 press release.
The Report on Teacher Quality is available at http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Teacher_Prep_ Review_2014_Report
For a full history of the Louisiana program development and technical reports by Dr. Noell and colleagues, go to http://regents.louisiana.gov/value-added- teacher-preparation-program-assessment- model/
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