U. S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today that the department has released data on the quality of teacher preparation from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and outlying territories.

The reports, which are required under Title II of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act, are now available for the first time on the World Wide Web at https://www.title2.org/index.htm and include information reported by the states on a range of topics related to teacher quality.

"The reports contain a host of useful information about teacher quality and teacher education programs in the states -- information essential for improving accountability and strengthening our teaching force," Paige said. "This initiative is part of our ongoing effort to make sure our colleges and universities are preparing qualified teachers to lead America’s classrooms."

Paige also noted that the Department of Education will conduct an analysis of the data contained in the state reports and submit the findings to Congress by spring 2002.

Each state report includes information on efforts to boost teacher quality:

• data for each college and university with a teacher education program, including number of students taking state certification assessments, number and percentage of students passing each assessment, and the school’s quartile ranking based on its pass rates;

• numbers of teachers in classrooms on waivers or without a regular initial certificate or license;

• information on alternate routes to certification, including pass rates on certification exams for alternate route completers;

• certification and licensure requirements ¾ for example, required degrees or courses;

• procedures for evaluating teacher preparation programs in institutions of higher education, as well as their criteria for identifying and providing assistance to low-performing institutions; and

• steps taken in the past year to improve the quality of teaching, such as strengthening requirements for subject matter mastery, or developing standards for measuring teacher performance.

Paige urged caution in using the data currently available to compare states, because state systems for teacher certification and licensure differ in many ways. Institutions also vary greatly in how they use state certification assessments. For example, some schools use tests as criteria for admission to teacher education programs, while others may use the same test to determine when students are ready for practice teaching, and still others may use the test as a graduation requirement. Schools that do the latter will show a 100 percent pass rate for their students.

"Our goal is to assure that all teacher education programs are working to train our future teachers in the most effective methods according to evidence-based research," Paige said. "We need qualified teachers using best practices if we are to ensure that no child is left behind."

The law requires schools of education to provide their institutional data to the states each spring, and also to widely disseminate their reports to potential applicants to their program, to high school guidance counselors, and to prospective employers of their graduates, such as school superintendents. States are in turn required to provide their reports to the department in October.

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