Study: Teacher prep weak but improving

Teacher prep programs at UNC Chapel Hill,  UNC Wilmington and Elon University earned high marks in a new national study by the National Council on Teacher Quality,  but the group says most universities in North Carolina and the nation have a long way to go.

"Far more needs to be done to expand the pool of teachers properly prepared to meet the challenges of the contemporary American classroom," the report says.  "Still, an upsurge in quality has begun. It is good news indeed to be able to report some movement, however spotty, given the many attempts to improve teacher preparation that never even got off the ground."

The council rated more than 1,600 teacher prep programs on selectivity,  student teaching programs and instruction in early reading,  classroom management and content.  N.C. schools outperformed the national average on selectivity but fell short on most other measures  (read the state report here).

UNC Chapel Hill got the state's best rating,  ranked 17th in the nation for its graduate program in secondary education.  Elon's undergraduate elementary education program ranked 22nd,  and UNC Wilmington's graduate program in secondary education was 37th.

Just across the state line,  South Carolina's Winthrop University was ranked 27th in the nation for undergraduate elementary and 147th for graduate secondary.

Other schools in the Charlotte area didn't fare as well.  UNC Charlotte was ranked No. 101 for graduate elementary, 221 for graduate secondary and 260 for undergraduate elementary.  Queens University's graduate program landed in the bottom half,  which meant it didn't receive a rank.  Belmont Abbey College,  Wingate University and Pfeiffer University are listed as not having provided the requested information.

Morrison

The council is a reform advocacy group funded by Gates,  Broad,  Carnegie,  Walton and most of the other big names in education philanthropy (including the Charlotte-based Belk Foundation).  N.C. Superintendent June Atkinson,  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Heath Morrison and former CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman,  now an executive with the private ed-tech firm Amplify,  are listed as supporters of the N.C. report.

This year's report also rates a sampling of alternative certification programs.  "Alternative certification programs provide on-the-job training to teacher candidates. Candidates are placed in internship before obtaining initial certification and serve as teachers of record who are fully responsible for the students in their classrooms,"  the report says.  The results,  it concludes,  were "even weaker than for traditional programs.  NCTQ found their admissions standards to be too low,  efforts to assess subject matter knowledge inadequate,  and too little training or support provided to candidates who are asked to hit the ground running in the classroom."

Gorman

Teach For America is probably the best known of these programs,  but North Carolina's TFA wasn't among the sample rated. TFA in Massachusetts was the only alternative provider to earn high marks from the council,  while other TFA's sampled landed low ratings  --  along with South Carolina's PACE program and four Regional Alternative Licensing Centers in North Carolina.

The council hopes the rankings will be used by prospective students choosing schools, districts crafting recruitment strategies and government policymakers setting standards. Its conclusions are harsh on both the  "bloated"  traditional university approach and the alternatives that have popped up.

"In our view, the only reason not to pull the plug on the experiment of alternative certification is that traditional teacher preparation continues to have persistent flaws,"  the report concludes.  "Were traditional preparation to add the value that it should,  teachers produced by alternate routes would never be competitive for jobs anywhere.  As long as traditional teacher preparation continues to be so generally substandard,  we recognize the need for,  indeed the value of,  limited, well-regulated alternative certification programs whose outcomes are monitored and made public." 

Principal pipeline: Promise and hurdles

Developing a cadre of effective principals isn't easy, according to a new Wallace Foundation study of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and five other districts.

"Building a Stronger Principalship"  chronicles the first-year efforts of six districts trying to develop a  "principal pipeline."  Those districts  --   CMS;  New York City;  Denver;  Gwinnett County, Ga.; Hillsborough County, Fla.;  and Prince George's County, Md.  --  will continue the grant-supported study through 2016,  trying to find better ways to recruit,  train and evaluate principals and assistant principals.

West Charlotte's John Wall (center), one of Morrison's first principal hires

One early hazard noted:  A focus on accountability can lead to principal firings,  "thus simultaneously increasing the demand for new principals while making the position less attractive to prospective applicants." That may sound familiar in an area that has seen significant principal churn and complaints that veterans are being run off.  But CMS wasn't one of the three districts where the issue was noted.  The study includes this quote from New York City (a district that hires as many as 200 principals a year):  "The principalship is not that attractive any more. People see it as a career ender. Think about it: you go into a failing school, you’re given maybe two years to turn it around, and if you don’t, you’re gone [and no longer have a job]."

The study gives CMS credit for a strong partnership with Winthrop University,  which collaborated with district leaders to create a Leaders for Tomorrow graduate program to train principals with the skills CMS seeks. The district is also noted for its five-year program of coaching and education for new principals.

The study focuses on 2011-12,  the transition year between Peter Gorman and Heath Morrison.

During his first year,  which just ended,  Morrison named 26 principals,  including one for the new Grand Oak Elementary that brings CMS to 160 schools.  Morrison told me he counts it as a victory that there seems to be less confusion and turmoil about principal changes than there was when he arrived.  He credits that partly to better communication and community involvement.  He's also striving to create enough of a leadership bench that when a successful principal moves on,  there's a member of that school team ready to step in.