Introduction

Title II, Section 207, of the Higher Education Act (HEA) as passed in 1998 requires states, as recipients of HEA funds, and all institutions with teacher preparation programs that enroll students receiving federal financial assistance, to prepare annual reports on teacher preparation and licensing.

State Report Card Requirements

The state report card requires information about three basic areas: state certification requirements, the institutions and alternative routes that prepare teachers and their success in doing so as measured by pass rates on certification tests, and the numbers of teachers in the state, both those who are and those who are not fully certified to teach. The state report also must rank order institutions and alternative preparation routes in quartiles in each of seven categories by percent of candidates passing the assessments. Finally, the state is required to provide a description of state efforts to improve teacher quality.

Institutional Report Cards

The institutional report card must contain the percentage of its students who complete the program who pass each certification assessment as well as the percent who pass in each of the following categories: basic skills, professional knowledge and pedagogy, academic content areas, teaching special populations, other content areas, performance assessments, as well as an overall summary pass rate. The report also must contain a comparison of that institution's average pass rate with others in the state, the total number of students in the program, the average number of hours of supervised practice teaching, the faculty/student ratio in supervised practice teaching, the institution's accreditation status and the institution's designation as "low performing," if applicable (after first year).

Eventually, institutions and states will report annually on two cohorts. However, in the first three years, institutions will include data from only one cohort. However, every subsequent report will contain the pass rates on the most recent cohort of completers as well as updated pass rates on the cohort that finished the program three years earlier.

The information in the institutional report card must be widely reported, e.g., school catalogues, promotional material to applicants, guidance counselors, potential employers. If an institution does not comply, it may be fined $25,000.

Low Performing Institutions

All states will be required to identify both low-performing teacher preparation programs and those at-risk of being considered low performing. The state also must provide technical assistance to those programs so designated beginning next year.