Friday, December 14, 2007
Teachers respond to incentives
The report credits �a confluence of policy changes at the federal, state, and institutional levels� for improvements in the academic quality of teachers. Among the policies it specifically cites as having an impact are stricter admissions standards for teacher-education programs; changes in accreditation requirements that put more emphasis on how much is learned by students in teacher-education programs; and a provision in the Higher Education Act, as reauthorized in 1998, requiring all states and institutions that prepare teachers to report licensure-test passing rates.So you make it harder to get in, and make states report passing rates, and the scores go up. That doesn't seem too mysterious to me.
Labels: education, higher education