Students walk to class on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.TEACHER JOB PLACEMENTMembers of UTC’s 2012-13 teacher class got jobs in the following Tennessee counties:* Blount: 2* Bradley: 2* Davidson: 3* Dickson: 1* Franklin: 1* Greene: 1* Hamilton: 65* Knox: 4* McMinn: 1* Montgomery: 1* Rhea: 2* Sequatchie: 3* Shelby: 4* Union: 1* Williamson: 1* Wilson: 1Source: Tennessee’s 2014 Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga isn’t the best teacher’s college in Tennessee, and it isn’t the worst – it’s somewhere in the middle, according to a recent state report.
That’s not good enough for Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith, who at recent public meetings has called on UTC to improve the quality of the teachers it graduates. UTC provides the bulk of the 300 to 400 teachers the district hires annually, he said.
“UTC’s got to get better,” Smith said on Nov. 1 at the school board’s annual retreat. “UTC must aspire to have the best teacher prep college in the South.”
UTC officials aren’t taking offense. They’ve been working with school district officials to make changes at the School of Education, said Valerie Rutledge, who’s starting her second year as dean of UTC’s College of Health, Education and Professional Studies. She previously oversaw the School of Education.