Institutional/Image

Title: “Total Number of Teacher Preparation Programs Identified as “At-Risk” or “Low-Performing” Nationwide, 2001-2006 “

Summary: The number of “At-Risk” teacher education schools jumps from 17 schools in 2005 to 31 schools in 2006. The majority of the accreditation bodies never reported the schools as “low-performing.”

Topic: Accrediting of all schools of education

Category: Institutional, Non-profit/Image

What is it? A chart of “At-Risk” teacher preparation schools

Publication Information: Education Sector, May 1, 2007

Author: U.S. Department of Education

Location: http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=479747

Accessed: Mar. 15, 2009

Support:

U.S. Department of Education
Higher Education Act (HEA), passed by Congress in 1998 requires states to have an assessment of teacher programs in place
Kevin Carey, author of the accompanying article, “

Audience and Agenda: Education Sector is a non-profit organization that assess eduction policies and looks to reform the education system. Their audience is policy-makers that can use their data to shape education policies.

Usefulness: The graph shows the large jump in the number of “At-Risk” schools The article focuses on who is accountable for the growing number of “At-Risk” teacher schools. While everyone first looks to the state, most states respond that their teacher education programs have an accreditation body employed for this very reason. The question then is, why aren’t accreditation agencies able to assess a low-performance school? Is it because they are unable to accurately measure the quality of the education, or are they omitting their findings for fear of losing a paying client?

Works Cited:

The “About” page for Education Sector: http://www.educationsector.org/whoweare/

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