Report Finds Teachers Woefully Unprepared for Classroom Challenges
Evan Grossman /
Teachers are not ready to teach.
That was the bold message delivered by the National Council on Teacher Quality last week in a scathing national report on educators.
Atop a long list of findings, the report says most states haven’t done enough to prepare new teachers for the higher standards their students are expected to achieve.
“With such a profound change occurring in K-12 student standards across the country, it would stand to reason that parallel changes would occur on the teacher side,” said Sandi Jabos, vice president and managing director for state policy for the council. “States need to ensure that new teachers are adequately supported in the transition to higher standards and beyond.
And there is no better place to start than where new teachers begin to learn their craft — in teacher preparation programs.”
The eighth annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook examines the effectiveness of educators in all 50 states and concluded American school districts are mostly falling short in delivering well-prepared teachers, expanding the teaching pool and identifying and getting rid of ineffective teachers while retaining effective teachers.
Most states received their highest marks in the eight-year history of the study “because of significant reform, particularly in the areas of teacher evaluation and related teacher effectiveness policies,” according to the NCTQ.
Florida, Indiana and Rhode Island each earned a B-plus, the highest grade in the country, for raising admission standards for teacher preparation institutions, requiring teachers to demonstrate knowledge of the content they will be licensed to teach and collecting the kinds of data that will help hold teacher preparation programs accountable for giving new teachers the tools they need to succeed.
Montana got an F, the only failing grade in the country.
Click here to view the full report.