Overall Percentage of Providers Per Performance Category
2017In 2017, 33 programs received a scored report cardPerformance Category 1: 5.1 percentPerformance Category 2: 33.3 percentPerformance Category 3: 28.2 percentPerformance Category 4: 17.9 percent2016In 2016, 30 programs received a score report card.Performance Category 1: 13.3 percentPerformance Category 2: 36.7 percentPerformance Category 3: 26.7 percentPerformance Category 4: 23.3 percentSource: 2017 Tennessee Teacher Prepartion Report Card
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / A clip reading "I make a difference" is magnetized to a board beneath a door labeled "Teachers HELP" inside Hunter Hall, home of the UTC School of Education, on the school's campus Friday, July 22, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.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.Lee UniversityOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 2Employment: 1Program Impact: 2Memphis Teacher ResidencyOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 3Employment: 3Program Impact: 4Middle Tennessee State UniversityOverall Performance: 3Candidate Performance: 2Employment: 4Program Impact: 3Southern Adventist UniversityOverall Performance: N/ACandidate Performance: 2Employment: N/AProgram Impact: N/ATeach for America - MemphisOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Program Impact: 4Teach for America - NashvilleOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Program Impact: 4University of MemphisOverall Performance: 3Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 4Program Impact: 3University of Tennessee - ChattanoogaOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 3Employment: 3Program Impact: 2University of Tennessee - KnoxvilleOverall Performance: 4Candidate Performance: 3Employment: 4Program Impact: 4University of Tennessee - MartinOverall Performance: 2Candidate Performance: 1Employment: 4Program Impact: 1Vanderbilt UniversityOverall Performance: 3Candidate Performance: 4Employment: 1Program Impact: 3Source: 2017 Tennessee Teacher Preparation Report Card
Despite slight improvement in several categories, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's School of Education remains among the bottom half of the state's teacher preparation programs, according to this year's report on the effectiveness of teacher training programs.
The school has plans underway, though, to improve its ranking, including the addition of a new K-5 certification and English as a second language degree program and a revamp of its partnership agreement with the Hamilton County Department of Education.
This is only the second year since the state launched its revamped report card, which gives detailed information about new teachers' readiness for success in the classroom, in an effort to bolster programs across the state.
Of the state's 33 teacher preparation programs, which include university- or college-based programs as well as job-embedded ones such as Teach for America and the Memphis Teacher Residency, 18 of them score a 3 or 4, which is considered meeting and/or exceeding expectations.
UTC, along with 12 other programs, received a score of a 2 - an aggregate of 40 possible scores based on categories including the program's overall performance, the profiles of graduates and their performance once they were employed.
"The Report Card allows us to bring information regarding relevant data to the table to open honest, forthright discussions around professional growth opportunities," UTC School of Education Director Renee Murley said in a statement. "The most positive result of the Report Card information is its ability to become a catalyst for our ongoing communication with UTC's primary partner districts (Hamilton County and Marion County). These partnerships are essential in order for us to be successful and to ensure continuous improvement."
This year's report card includes data from three cohorts of "completors" - or graduates who have obtained a Tennessee teacher license - including those who graduated in the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. UTC's programs, like many across the state, have seen their numbers decrease as enrollment in teacher education programs has also dropped statewide. About 168 new teachers completed UTC's program in 2017, down from 234 in 2015.
Murley said that drop reflects a nationwide drop, as well as an increase in admission standards. In 2015, the state dropped the required ACT score for teacher candidates to 21, but UTC's remains at 22. The school also requires a 2.75 for admission.
Diversity was one of the areas where UTC performed the worst, earning only 2.3 of 7 possible points for its percentage of racially diverse completors. Nearly 80 percent of new teachers coming out of UTC are white and another 10.7 percent are black.
UTC is partnering with Hamilton County Schools, which was recently awarded a Diversity Innovation Implementation Grant by the Tennessee Department of Education, to establish a teacher academy program for high school students at Tyner Academy in an effort to prepare more students for the field, as well as increase the district's number of minority recruits.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville was the first public institution to rank in the report card's highest category this year - many of the state's highest performers are the nontraditional teacher preparation programs.
"I think it is interesting that we see non-traditional programs scoring at the top categories," said Sara Morrison, executive director of the state Board of Education. "That is often the result that they are working pretty closely with their communities and the districts and where they are placing their students UT Knoxville is now one of the top scoring schools because they do a really good job at where they are placing students and are being thoughtful about what their districts need."
To view this year's report card and see how programs across the state stack up, visit: teacherprepreportcard.tn.gov.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.