Reporting Rankings of Teacher Education
Programs as Required by Title II

AS-2521-01/TEKR - January 18-19, 2001

RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate of the California State University (ASCSU) urge the Chancellor to request the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) to include, in any publication of teacher education program rankings, sufficient program data to provide a proper context for the information.

RATIONALE: Title II of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act requires that all states report the quality of their teacher preparation programs based on assessments of the performance of the program graduates. These reports are to be published in a state report card that indicates the performance quartile of each program's student passing rate.

The federal requirement specifies that only measures common to all state programs may be used. In California, the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA) is the only measure that meets this requirement. RICA is required of all of multiple subject and special education certification candidates in California's 80+ teacher education programs. Based on each institution's student "pass rate" on this single test, programs will be given a quartile ranking and that quartile placement will be reported nationally and throughout the state. In addition, each program may elect to write three 250-word descriptive narratives regarding program elements.

There are a number of problems with using this one measure as the sole indicator of quality. The range of scores in each quartile is extremely narrow. It is estimated for example, that a 90% passing rate would place a program in the third quartile. Reporting the RICA passing rates by quartile is not particularly meaningful, and any publication of quartile rankings should be supplemented with additional data to create a meaningful context, such as the actual passing rate for each program, number of program graduates or completers, enrollments by program type, number of full and part time faculty, teacher shortages in the immediate area, and the range of scores in each quartile.

APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY - January 18-19, 2001