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‘Results take time’: UTC ranking remains steady among lower half of state educator preparation programs

Christin Willingham talks through what students know and asks them what they want to know about landforms while student teaching in Wendy Scruggs' class at Battle Academy Wednesday, March 7, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Willingham, who is a senior in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's School of Education, is doing her student teaching residency in Scruggs' classroom. Christin Willingham talks through what students know and asks them what they want to know about landforms while student teaching in Wendy Scruggs' class at Battle Academy Wednesday, March 7, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Willingham, who is a senior in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's School of Education, is doing her student teaching residency in Scruggs' classroom.

By Meghan Mangrum February 19, 2019 6 min read

Training programs across the state are steadily improving how they prepare would-be teachers for the classroom, despite a decline in overall enrollment, according to a new report card.

They’re also doing a better job of placing teachers in high-demand, hard-to-staff areas such as secondary math and science, special education and English as a second language classes.

“Every year, we work closely with partners across the state, including districts and members of the educator preparation community, to improve the utility and scope of the report card,” said Sara Morrison, executive director of the State Board of Education, in a statement. “We have seen an improvement in overall scores year after year. In particular, we have seen an increase in program completers seeking endorsements in high-demand areas, higher retention of first-year teachers and improvements in student growth.”

PROGRAM RANKINGS

Programs are ranked on a scale of 1 to 4 in each of four categories, but are evaluated and compared based on their overall performance categories.Bryan CollegeOverall Performance: 1Candidate Performance: 1Employment: 2Provider Impact: 1Lee UniversityOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 2Employment: 2Provider Impact: 2Memphis Teacher ResidencyOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Provider Impact: 4Middle Tennessee State UniversityOverall Performance: 3Candidate Performance: 1Employment: 4Provider Impact: 3Southern Adventist UniversityOverall Performance: 1Candidate Performance: 2Employment: 1Provider Impact: 1Teach for America – MemphisOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Provider Impact: 4Teach for America – NashvilleOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Provider Impact: 4University of MemphisOverall Performance: 3Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Provider Impact: 3University of Tennessee – ChattanoogaOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 2Employment: 3Provider Impact: 2University of Tennessee – KnoxvilleOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 3Employment: 4Provider Impact: 4University of Tennessee – MartinOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 1Employment: 4Provider Impact: 2Source: 2018 Tennessee Teacher Preparation Report Card

The Educator Preparation Report Card, released last week, is an annual report by the Tennessee Board of Education.