Georgia Teacher Training Programs Will Be Graded

At the beginning of next year, Georgia’s teacher training programs will be able to see how they stack up nationally. The National Council on Teacher Quality and U.S. News & World Report are teaming up to rank every education program at colleges and universities across the country. Programs will be given letter grades of A-F. NCTQ president Kate Walsh says they’ll be judged on four main components.

“We’re looking at how selective an institution is; what kind of coursework they take to become a teacher in their subject area; for their student teaching, whether they’re assigned to someone who him or herself is a great teacher; and then we look at outcome data,” she says.

Walsh admits measuring outcomes is a challenge.  Georgia, for example, is revamping its teacher evaluation system. And models vary by state. But, she says, a new national ranking system is needed, since past accreditation methods haven’t been effective.