A new National Council on Teacher Quality report argues that higher admission standards in teacher preparation programs attract higher-quality teaching candidates and produce more effective educators.
From 2011 to 2015, several states and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) raised admission requirements for teacher preparation programs. Yet this change was short-lived. By 2016 CAEP backed away from their more rigorous requirements in response to criticism that the higher standards resulted in a less diverse teaching force and exacerbated teacher shortages. While enrollment in teacher preparation programs did drop from 2009 to 2014, NCTQ contends that this was a result of the difficult economic times and not caused by CAEP’s higher application standards—which NCTQ argues are still necessary if teacher preparation programs are to recruit high-quality applicants.
The study backs up these claims by pulling together data from various sources. It looks at the admission requirements of 221 elementary teacher education programs from twenty-five states, as well as data from a forthcoming NCTQ report, and a survey of college students conducted by the organization Third Way. From these, NCTQ shows that many states are already able to meet stricter requirements and argues that maintaining higher standards will likely attract better quality applicants, while having little to no effect on their number or their racial diversity.
Using results from the National Online Survey of College Students administered by Third Way, NCTQ found that, in a sample of 400 non-education major students, over 50 percent of students with a high GPA (3.3 or higher) see education as an “easy” major, and as a result, are discouraged from pursuing a career in education. The survey also found that 58 percent of students reported that they would show more interest in teacher preparation majors if application standards were more rigorous. This suggests that higher standards will not only result in more candidates, but also better qualified candidates.
Moreover, NCTQ found that, of the 221 teacher preparation programs it studied, the majority were on track to meet higher minimum average GPA or test score requirements while still accepting an adequate number of applicants. This was true of 72 percent of teacher preparation programs in states that require a program’s incoming class to have an average GPA of 3.0. Similarly, of the states that adhere to CAEP standards, 53 percent are currently likely still able to meet the more rigorous standards CAEP implemented (but later reversed) in 2011.
NCTQ’s also makes the case that higher standards won’t significantly reduce program diversity. This factor is important, especially given studies that have found improved student outcomes in classrooms in which teachers and students are the same race. Thankfully, selective teacher prep programs don’t necessarily result in less diversity. Thirteen percent of undergraduate elementary education programs are able to have high admission standards while maintaining a diverse student body. Although the percentage is low, it still attests that diversity and quality can effectively coexist.
Excellent teachers are absolutely necessary if we are to continue improving student outcomes—so states ought to heed NCTQ’s guidance that higher admission standards to teacher preparation programs must be maintained to attract higher-quality applicants. There are many areas for improvement within teacher preparation programs, but being more selective with whom they admit is a quick first step in ensuring that more high-quality teachers end up in our schools.
SOURCE: Kate Walsh, Nithya Joseph, and Autumn Lewis, “Within Our Grasp: Achieving Higher Admissions Standards in Teacher Prep,” National Council for Teacher Quality (November 2016).
