This teacher-to-be read the report of the National Council on Teacher Quality on teacher preparation and was disappointed to realize that its research methodology was so flawed.
Here is her insightful comment:
As a current teacher candidate in an initial certification program I was very, very concerned with the NCTQ’s report. My institution was among the 90% of colleges and universities that did not participate in the study and after reading the report I can clearly see why. Curious to see what research method was used to conclude that most of the schools are failing in their programs; I sought out their methodology and was very dismayed with what I found. After reading the methodology NCTQ clearly did not complete its research to make the resulting report quantified. I say that because where are the teacher candidate surveys, observations, interviews, faculty interviews, teacher placement data and subsequent student achievement data? No information was given on the thoughts, opinions, and achievement of both pre-service and in-service teachers after year one, year two, etc.
None of this information was retrieved yet NCTQ published a report that says teacher preparation programs are ineffective. As I can see, they made no visits to any schools for qualitative data yet clearly deduced that universities are failing in their teacher preparation. I found the report to be slanted, horribly incomplete, totally inconclusive from the data gathered and very detrimental to the teaching field. I can only hope the public is critical enough to read the report which in itself will reveal its lack of validity.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“slanted, horribly incomplete, totally inconclusive from the data gathered and very detrimental to the teaching field.”
Like so many other ‘research’ reports lately.
LikeLike
The so-called ed reformers are already citing the “research” to push for sweeping changes in teacher preparation, while also pushing to fund TFA. Did NCTQ rate TFA as a teacher prep program? Walsh does her conclusions first, then pretend to do research and analysis to reach her a priori conclusions.
LikeLike
Hijacking “research” has long been a standard of the corporatists. It makes it easier to say with a straight face things like, “there’s no proof that smoking causes cancer” or “the evidence for man-made global warming is, at best, rather weak”. Whether the issue is class size, evolution, “failing schools”, etc., there is always plenty of “research” to support whatever position is convenient (and profitable), despite the fact that for pretty much all such topics, the real research has long settled the issue.
LikeLike
This whole U.S. Snooze thing is so ridiculous. All these universities have accrediting bodies that put them through the wringer on a periodic basis, with campus-wide and program-wide self-studies, thorough-going site visits, and top-notch teams of professional evaluators. They work from standards of practice that are developed by thousands of experienced educators and researchers over decades of planning, vision, and revision.
So now they’re all supposed to jump because some fly-by-night pressure group and half-baked news-rag of amateur pundits wants to blow their noses in public?
Absurd …
LikeLike
fly by night group funded by ….. http://www.nctq.org/about/funders.jsp
LikeLike
The Usual Jetsets …
LikeLike
A lot of people believe that hogwash. You constantly hear of people referring to “top-tier” universities and the like, and it stems directly from this idiot survey. Where did they come up with this “top tier” garbage? From the US News & World Report “rankings,” which are subjective and give way too much weight to the “snob schools.” ALL colleges and universities should boycott it.
LikeLike
I often wonder what the graduates of these top-tier universities are actually learning from their passages through their precious portals. Their values do seem rather more addled than average at times.
LikeLike
I attended one of those Colleges ranked #1 for years by the USWorld report. Berea College in Ky. Small, liberal arts. We were provided the opportunity to get a world class education from professors who had left IVY league schools because they wanted to teach. As they taught us at Berea, The harvard fellahs are taught to wash their hands after taking a leak. We were taught not to piss on ourselves or others. 🙂 Unfortunately, employers look at the school more than the candidate and offer people from places like Yale or Harvard more jobs and higher salaries, and you know, us teachers, we are all about the money.
LikeLike
Keep thinking of the line from the Little Prince: “But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference.”
LikeLike
Perhaps a bit of wisdom in that, but that is not the problem here.
The problem is not data, the problem is people who don’t know diddley about data.
LikeLike
Well it also has no output information at all. Leaving aside the questions about the whole idea of “rating” teacher programs at all, if you’re going to do a rating you’d think it would have something to do with whether or not the graduates actually turned out to be good teachers.
LikeLike
Just added this to a growing collection of concerns regarding the deeply flawed NCTQ report. This teacher candidate is spot on in understanding that NCTQ’s methodology did not meet basic research standards. Here’s further evidence with a focus on standards for evaluation research: http://bit.ly/nctq_methods
LikeLike
Anybody who has ever followed this outfit knows it is guided by ideology; they couldn’t care less about teacher quality or education. They want to kill public education in this country and turn it into some kind of for-profit business and to ultimately restrict ALL high education for the vast majority in an attempt to do away with upward mobility. Cutting off education access is one way, while killing unions is the other way.
LikeLike
And you yourself are NOT driven by ideology? I will grant that the effect of their policies may be what you fear, but I wonder if you have ever talked to anyone who supports privatization to see if that would yield any insight to what they “really” want?
LikeLike
I mean “higher education.”
LikeLike