The National Council on Teacher Quality is a conservative group created to make professional teacher education look bad. I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation when it was started. It floundered a while, then got a $5 Million Grant from then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige to get its act together. It has done that. Now it is Gates-funded and is a darling of reformers, who yearn to replace the teaching profession with TFA temps and screen time.
Now the NCTQ has made itself the arbiter of “Standards” for teacher education, despite its lack of qualifications. It isssues an annual report for the media, informing them that very very few institutions meet their standards. Some major media take their ratings seriously, never asking who they are and how they have the chutzpah to rate every ed school in the nation, without bothering to visit any campuses. Linda Darling-Hammond described their first report stating that it was like a colllecyion of restaurant reviews based on menus, not on visits and tastings.
The National Education Policy Center reviewed the latest NCTQ report:
BOULDER, CO— The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) recently released its 2018 Teacher Prep Review. The report examines whether U.S. teacher preparation programs are aligned with NCTQ’s standards. This alignment, the report insists, will produce teachers “not only ready to achieve individual successes, but also [ready] to start a broader movement toward increased student learning and proficiency.”
The NCTQ report regularly garners generally credulous coverage from media outlets, including this year from Education Week and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Marilyn Cochran-Smith of Boston College, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe of Lesley University, Wen-Chia Chang of Boston College, and Molly Cummings Carney of Boston College reviewed the report for NEPC. The reviewers are all members of Project TEER (Teacher Education and Education Reform), a group of teacher education scholars and practitioners who have been studying U.S. teacher education in the context of larger reform movements since 2014. Their review found the report to have multiple logical, conceptual, and methodological flaws.
The report determines that most teacher preparation programs are not aligned with the NCTQ standards. Accordingly, it finds “severe structural problems with both graduate and alternative route programs that should make anyone considering them cautious.”
However, the report’s rationale includes widely critiqued assumptions about the nature of teaching, learning, and teacher credentials. Its methodology, which employs a highly questionable documents-only evaluation system, is a maze of inconsistencies, ambiguities, and contradictions. Further, the report ignores accumulating evidence that there is little relationship between the NCTQ’s ratings of a program and its graduates’ later classroom performance.
Finally, the report fails to substantively account for broad shifts in the field of teacher education that are nuanced, hybridized, and dynamic. It also exacerbates the dysfunctional dichotomy between university programs and alternative routes. For years now, researchers and analysts have pointed out that this distinction is not very useful, given that there is as much or more variation within these categories as between them. Ultimately, the report offers little guidance for policymakers, practitioners, or the general public.
Find the review, by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, Wen-Chia Chang, and Molly Cummings Carney, at:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-teacher-prep-2018
Find 2018 Teacher Prep Review, written by Robert Rickenbrode, Graham Drake, Laura Pomerance, and Kate Walsh and published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, at:
https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/2018_Teacher_Prep_Review_733174
Diane Ravitch's blog 
NTCQ has links to both Success Academy and TNTP.
With that in mind, check this out.
Thanks to that notorious legislation, BELOW is Success Academy’s new, revised job offering — in cooperation with TNTP — that’s now on-line (as of June 12th, when it was posted).
Success Academy teachers now have to meet a mere 4 requirements prior to hiring:
” – Bachelor’s degree, with an outstanding record of academic achievement and leadership;
” – Flexibility and openness to feedback;
” – Grit and perseverance;
and
” – Interest in working in a collaborative environment.”
As Porky Pig used to say …
“Thuh- thuh- thuh- THAT’S all folks!”
No credential of any kind required, nor even one hour of college credit in education, nor any credits in “Science” or “Math” (the postings are for new middle school “Science” and “Math” teachers) any training in education, nor one day working in education, or prior experience working with children in any capacity.
Apart from the Bachelor’s Degree, Eva’s new teacher-disruptor Math and Science teachers may as well be applying to work at McDonald’s.
Thank you, Joe Belluck & the rest of the charter-authorizing folks folks at SUNY!!!
(NOTE the posting’s cliches about how these new, untrained teachers whom Eva hires will be “disrupting the status quo” as part of “a revolutionary K-12 school model that is nationally recognized for achieving outstanding academic results for students,”
You mean that “Got-to-go List” model where 80% of S.A. students get kicked out or get (COUGH! COUGH!) “counseled out” prior to graduation?
https://garyrubinstein.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/the-case-of-the-missing-scholar/ )
Here’s Eva’s job posting:
https://jobs.chalkbeat.org/jobs/middle-school-math-science-teachers-2/
CUE: Stephan Ronan & the other Eva apologists to come in with some hare-brained defense of the indefensible.
But seriously, how the frickin’-frick do you justify hiring folks to teach middle and high school math who have ZERO university Math or Science education, certification, or prior training?
Would Success Academy Board Member Campbell Brown be happy if the rich kids’ private school where she sends her own kids (Heschel) lowered the bar to freakin’ China when it came to the requirements for its teachers? The same goes for the rest of the corporate ed. reform folks.
No, but it’s okay for the Success Academy students.
Somebody post that video where SUNY’s Joe Belluck is confronted with the question: “Would you want this for your own kids?” and Belluck promptly blows a gasket at being asked the question, but never answers it.
I just found the Belluck video (along with a transcription)
Somebody secretly videotaped a meeting of the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting — a meeting where the controversial measure to allow uncertified teachers to work in SUNY-authorized charters such as the Success Academy charter chain was discussed.
It’s now on YouTube.
Included in this meeting was a community leader not happy with the new regulations — one Maria Bautista.
This is truly explosive stuff.
SUNY Board Chairman Joseph Belluck claims that he is livid at the tweets and overall “smear campaign” that has been portraying him as “racist.”
In response to this, Afro-Puerto Rican activist Maria Bautista of the Alliance for Quality Education is not buying Belluck’s attempt to fabricate victimhood for himself. She then proceeds to unload on Belluck, saying that Belluck’s new policy is most certainly “racist” in its effect, even itit’s not inherent in Belluck’s intent.
Would you want YOUR OWN kids taught by these uncertified teachers? Bautista asks him, and this sets Belluck off. Unfortunately, this is when the video cuts out.
Enjoy!
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
TRANSCRIPT
( 0:13 – )
( 0:13 – )
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Well, I just want to clarify that this ISN’T a smear campaign against you. Right?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That this has EVERYTHING to do with black and brown children – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Right.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – and THEIR access to high quality education, and second of all, if the teachers’ union wanted to be here and talk for themselves, they WOULD be.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “So I’m here to talk about the Alliance for Quality Education.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well, I’ll just … I’ll just say to you that, when I look at my phone, and someone tweets the following:
” ‘ @JoeBelluck is willing to allow this RACIST policy to persist.’ ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That’s RIGHT!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “‘Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay?”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair, and you’re allowing it to proceed – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – so that’s NOT a smear campaign. It’s ACTUALLY WHAT’S HAPPENING, and whether or not you feel defensive about that – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – but this is YOUR responsibility.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Exactly. You ARE defensive about it. You’re saying that this is a SMEAR campaign, and it’s NOT. We’re calling … we’re calling the cards for what they ARE.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggesting to you is that – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “THIS is the card that YOU are ALLOWING to move forward — THIS idea …THESE regulations for people to give comments on, when we know that they *(classes taught by uncertified teachers) *are going disproportionately impact black and brown children.
“You would NEVER have uncertified teachers teach YOUR children, so WHY is it okay for black and brown children? Why is THAT okay?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “It is NOT okay!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggest – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That is the point.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m saying to you – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “This is NOT a smear campaign.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” “What I’m suggesting to you is that the things that are going to MOVE this committee to ACT are going to be the SUBSTANCE of the regulations, and WHETHER OR NOT they are the BEST for educating the kids who are in our schools.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Would you want THIS for YOUR children? No.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: (angry) “I’m not going to speak to you about MY children -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “I would love that -”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” – because frankly .. because frankly – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – because what you would want for YOUR children is what you should want for EVERY child in this city.”
MALE SUNY BOARD MEMBER: “Alright. Can I just – ?)
x x x x x x x x x x x x
Video CUTS OUT
Wow, thanks for sharing that, Jack.
Here’s a great 3-minute video responding to SUNY allowing Success Academy to self-certify its teachers, after only minimal number ofhours of training:
One thing that someone mentioned to me off-line is something that’s missing from the job posting:
Salary
How much money is the $600,000-year-salaried Eva paying the untrained folks she will hire for the respective positions:
Associate Teacher
Lead Teachers
etc.?
Unlike the vast majority of teacher job postings, the salary that Eva will pay is conspicuously absent.
If Eva’s not including this in the job posting, it can’t be all that great, and thus what caliber of folks will she be able to hire at these presumably miserable salaries?
Now combine that with the dreadful reputation of the working conditions at Eva’s schools. Read here for some details on that:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/08/citizen-jacks-compendium-of-teacher.html
If I may correct a statement, Diane.
“The National Council on Teacher Quality is a REGRESSIVE REACTIONARY group created to make professional teacher education look bad.”
A truly conservative group would not be looking to destroy those programs that have been so successful in providing teachers for our schools for the last century. They would be looking to preserve and perhaps enhance them but certainly not condemn them.
YOu are right, Duane, but conservatism has become Trump and DeVos. Their goal is not to conserve what is best, but to blow up public education and let the chips fall wherever.
And it has become a false conservatism. No doubt as to the intentions of those two and those who support them. I’m amazed at how many college educated individuals whom I know that have fallen under the spell of a Randian* regressive libertarianism that pawns itself off as “conservatism”. Some even consider themselves “socially liberal” mainly in the aspect of live and let live gloriously free from the “gubmint”.
When I point out the many successful “gubmint” programs from cleaner air and water (EPA), true nature conservation (NPS), the interstate highway system, the safe air travel-FAA (which most utilize quite frequently) and many others they poopah my examples of “gubmint” working as if they are nothing or that those agencies are bloated blood and money sucking entities.
These are good basic people but have fallen under the sway of the neoliberal fascistic claptrap of which Giroux speaks. Me, me, me, what can I get and hoard for me and mine is the basis of that thinking.
It is quite sad!
*She who received “gubmint” benefits to live.
NCTQ is just another element in the Alt-Right’s Deep State misinformation machine as they continue to build this evil monster. When I refer to the Alt-Right, I’m talking about the Koch brothers libertarians, the neoliberals and the neoconservatives that allegedly are all under the same organization as three branches linked to one tree.
What I have found is: Take whatever is said or written and do a 180 … therein will lie the truth.
Nothing is as it seems in these DAZE.
Check this one out. Save our environment, please: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/06/13/iq-scores-decline/
Any country that would elect Drumpf has low IQ scores.
I’m smiling because that’s what most of the Chinese do when they read a story from the CCP’s state-owned media. Most Chinese will think the opposite is true.
Deep State? In this case, the Koch brothers are not supporters of the NCTQ. The National Education Policy Center does a great service in debunking the reports churned out by self-appointed groups that pretend to be experts on all things bearing on education.
NCTQ should be regarded as the operating arm for the foundations that support it. These foundations are not friends of professionalism in public education or public schools. Do not be fooled by their support for the pretentious sounding “National Center on Teaching Quality.”
Here are the names of the supporters of the stupid ratings churned out by NCQT. Boston Foundation, Bruni Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Chamberlin Family Foundation, Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Charles Cahn, Daniels Fund, Doris and Donald Fisher Fund, Educate78, Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Finnegan Family Foundation, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Hyde Family Foundations, J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, James M. Cox Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Laura and John Arnold, Longfield Family Foundation, Louis Calder Foundation, Lynch Foundation, Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, Osa Foundation, Powell Foundation, Rodel Foundation of Delaware, Sartain Lanier Family Foundation, Searle Freedom Trust, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Sidney A. Swensrud Foundation, Silicon Schools Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Trefler Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Walker Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, William E. Simon Foundation, and Zeist Foundation.
Most of these foundations are rightwing. Not surprising.
I recall when NCTQ was founded. Fordham gave Kate Walsh a startup grant. She wasn’t quite sure how to create a major organization with such a grandiose goal. She created an online test for future teachers so they could skip teacher education. It was multiple choice “content.” It was sold off as the ABCTE Teacher exam to a sham company. Mirabile dictu! The one-person NCTQ was saved by a gift of $5 Million from Rod Paige to stay afloat. Kate brilliantly dreamed up this idea of rating ed schools, and her organization is now the darling of all the right wingers who want to eliminate professional teacher education.
Jack, thank you for that transcript & the video. Once again, we have “a person in charge” (who very clearly should not be) refusing to speak about what HIS children should have, but is perfectly okay w/foisting inexperienced, uncertified personnel on “other people’s children.”
And then, he dares to whine about “offensive” Tweets he receives.
Good for Maria Bautista &, oh, boo-hoo, Joseph Belluck.
He needs to be thrown out on his @$$. (Sorry, Diane; these are not actual letters!)
I took a quick look at the backgrounds of the “math experts” listed on the report. I fail to understand why anyone would think that these three individuals are qualified to evaluate the mathematics component of an education program.
NCTQ is a reform organization that is political, not educational. No media should take it seriously. It would be as I set up an organization called the National Council of Restaurant Quality and pretended to be Michelin. Lots of free meals.
It’s time to attack the unqualified journalists and editors that don’t question the false reports from purely political organizations like the NCTQ that support hiring unqualified teachers.
Right, Bill. The media treats NCTQ as a trusted source, perhaps because it is funded by Gates. The journalists never bother to ask “Does this group have the experience, knowledge or qualifications to judge the quality of teacher education institutions?”
One person called this group the “national council on teacher quality.” There was no council. Just one person.
Supposed call myself “The National Council on Automobile Quality.” Suppose I issued an annual report, written without having driven any auto but my own. Suppose I persuaded some allies to join my board. I actually know nothing about cars but chances are the media would take my rankings very seriously.