After a long process, President Barack Obama can finally say he fulfilled this 2008 campaign promise: "Create a voluntary national performance assessment for educators." In our last update, we rated this In the Works.
On Oct. 12, 2016, the U.S. Education Department released new guidelines for teacher preparation programs.
They give states more power to create accountability programs to measure teacher preparation effectiveness. Every year, states must rank each preparation program from among at least three categories, such as "effective," "at risk," or "low-performing."
Programs not ranked "effective" will lose TEACH funding, which helps teachers in low-income areas teach high-need subjects. The Education Department said this is for "incentivizing aspiring teachers in a high-need field or in a low-income school to attend high-quality programs."
States are also required to report annually on programs' graduation and retention rates, feedback from graduates and their employers, and the "learning outcomes" of the students taught by the new graduates of the teacher preparation programs.
This seems at odds with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in December 2015, which reduced the effect student performance had on teachers. However, the new rules don't specify student performance must be based off tests, only "learning outcomes."
In a statement, Sharon Robinson, president and CEO of American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education said, "The release of this rule provides a catalyst at the state level to generate data regarding our graduates' impact in the classroom and inform continuous program improvement."
She also expressed concern about the rating systems.
"It should be noted that this rule makes the unprecedented move to link eligibility for federal student financial aid to yet-to-be-designed state rating systems," Robinson said.
Other groups also addressed the apparent difference with ESSA's move away from testing.
"In conflict with the recently enacted, bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act, the regulations call for an expansion of student assessments to include 'nontested grades and subjects,' a policy that was clearly rejected by Congress in the new law," said a statement of 29 organizations representing elementary and high schools, state governments, and other groups.
Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, supported the new regulations.
"Successful teachers today know there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach to teaching in their classrooms," Levine said. "As we look to K-12 teachers to personalize instruction and deliver student-focused instruction, so too should we look to our education schools and teacher preparation programs to deliver personalized learning to aspiring teachers."
States will design their reporting systems during the 2016-17 school year and the new regulations will be put fully into effect during the 2018-19 academic year.
Obama promised to "create a voluntary national performance assessment for educators." While that exact phrasing is not used, the new regulations do address teacher education regulation and oversight. We rate this Promise Kept.