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Teacher Prep Review

Our nation's schools employ 3 million teachers and rely on 27,000 programs in 2,000 separate institutions for training those teachers. Since 2006, NCTQ has reviewed programs, made recommendations, and highlighted the best we've seen of key elements for undergraduate and graduate programs for elementary, secondary and special education.

Scope

The NCTQ Teacher Prep Review evaluates the quality of programs that provide preservice preparation of teachers. The Review database includes both traditional and non-traditional programs.

Traditional Programs

The Teacher Prep Review evaluates a total of 2,506 undergraduate and graduate elementary, secondary, and special education programs offered by education schools in 1,120 public and private institutions of higher education.

Alternative Route and Residency Programs

The Teacher Prep Review also examines 129 alternate route programs and 18 residencies leading to elementary and secondary certification.

The Reach of the Review

The university- and college-based preparation programs evaluated by Teacher Prep Review are responsible for producing 99 percent of traditionally prepared teachers. The approximately 240 institutions that produce fewer than 20 teachers annually (and together produce less than 1 percent of the nation's public school teacher candidates) are not included in the sample. The number of alternative route and residency programs included in the Review has almost doubled since non-traditional programs were first included in 2014. We continue to expanding our reach to include even more traditional and alternative certification programs.

Who is in the Review

Programs Public (502)1,233 Programs Private (600)1,273 Programs
Undergraduate Elementary 395 477
Graduate Elementary 122 144
Undergraduate Secondary 369 452
Graduate Secondary 175 161
Undergraduate Special Education 94 20
Graduate Special Education 78 19
About the Review Close
Insights

Building Content Knowledge: While 84% of institutions address most science and social studies content elementary teachers need within current course options, only 3% require candidates to take the right courses in most topics.

 
 
Insights

Elementary Mathematics: Undergraduate programs in 2022 require an average of 19% more time for elementary math coursework than they did in 2014, a sizable increase. However, many programs do not make optimal use of this instructional time to cover essential math content.

 
 
Insights

Teacher Licensure Pass Rate Data: Institutional pass rates on elementary content licensure tests provide key insights on ways to better support aspiring teachers. Explore our work to support a data-driven approach to building a stronger, more diverse teacher workforce.

 
 
Insights

Program Diversity: A diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, particularly students of color — yet only 21% of teacher prep programs enroll cohorts of future teachers that are as racially diverse as their state teacher workforce and local community.

 
 
Insights

Admissions: Setting more rigorous admissions standards for aspiring teachers supports student learning. However, too many teacher prep programs don't set a high bar for admission.

 
 
Insights

Clinical Practice: No aspect of teacher prep is more influential than clinical practice, yet only 4% of programs ensure mentor teachers have the skills necessary to effectively mentor teacher candidates — an obstacle that persists in part because programs leave the selection of mentors to K-12 districts.

 
 
Insights

Classroom Management: Half of traditional elementary programs ensure that student teachers learn to use at least four of the five classroom management strategies that are universally effective, regardless of student age or the subject being taught—an increase of almost 30% since 2013.

 
 
Insights

Early Reading: Over 50% of traditional elementary programs provide adequate instruction in at least four of the five areas of scientifically-based reading, which research shows is the most effective way to teach reading, compared to 35% in 2013.

 
 
 
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TEACHER LICENSURE PASS RATE DATA

Driven by Data: Using licensure tests to build a strong, diverse teacher workforce

Institutional pass rates on elementary content licensure tests provide key insights on ways to better support aspiring teachers.

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