Title II and Lesley's "Report Card" Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Title II? What's the purpose of the "report cards"?

The Teacher Quality Enhancement Act (Title II of the Higher Education Act) is a federal law enacted in 1998. The proponents of Title II saw it as a means of ensuring accountability for teacher preparation programs across the country. It requires higher education institutions that operate such programs to annually report on the performance of their graduates on teacher licensure tests, as well as other information related to program quality. These annual reports are referred to as institutional report cards.

2. Are teacher test pass rates a fair assessment of the quality of a program?

Few people would suggest that a single paper and pencil test, no matter how well designed, can adequately measure the readiness of an individual to be a skillful classroom teacher. In the case of the Massachusetts licensure tests, which are unique to the state, there are unanswered questions about the technical reliability of the test. As a practical matter, the tests are part of the requirements for being licensed in the state and the Title II law requires that test results form a major part of every institution's annual report cards. While pass rates on such tests are probably not the best basis for comparison of teacher preparation programs, it is inevitable that some will use the pass rates for that purpose.

A report published by the National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, in March 2001, found that:

"simple comparisons among institutions based on their passing rates are difficult to interpret for many reasons. These include the fact that institutions have different educational missions and recruiting practices, their students have different entry-level qualifications, teacher education programs have different entry and exit testing requirements, and programs have different procedures for determining the institutional affiliation of their candidates. By themselves, passing rates on licensure tests do not provide adequate information on which to judge the quality of teacher education programs."

The full report, "Testing Teacher Candidates: The Role of Licensure Tests in Improving Teacher Quality," can be found on the web at: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309074207/html/

3. In addition to test pass rates and other quantitative data included in the report card, what other measures indicate the overall quality of a teacher preparation program?

There are myriad teacher preparation programs. In Massachusetts, for example, 64 separate institutions are authorized by the state to prepare teachers for licensure. Each has a unique mission, serves a particular student population and emphasizes certain program attributes. Among the questions worth asking in assessing the quality of a particular program are: What is the quality of the program's faculty? What are the faculty-student ratios? How is the student teaching experience organized and supervised? Where do graduates of the program land jobs?

4. What happens to Lesley graduates after they leave your program? Where do Lesley graduates teach?

Over the last five years, an average of 95% of students in Lesley certification programs who were seeking jobs in education found jobs in the field of education, according to survey data. Our graduates find teaching positions in public and independent schools locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Over the last five years, school districts employing Lesley graduates were located in: California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico, England, and Belgium.

5. Are the Massachusetts teacher tests reliable?

There has been considerable debate about the reliability of the Massachusetts teacher tests. Since they were developed by a private company under contract to the state Department of Education, technical information about the tests isn't always available. Some critics have noted potential flaws that would indicate the tests may not be reliable.

6. How do the Massachusetts tests compare to those administered in other states?

The teacher licensure tests administered in Massachusetts were developed specifically for the state and to align with the state's curriculum frameworks. They are different from those used in any other state. It is impossible to compare performance on the Massachusetts exams to another individual's performance on another state's test.

7. Can the report card results be used to compare Lesley with programs in other states?

The institutional report cards are of limited value for this purpose. That's because each state determines its own unique licensure requirements, uses its own test and passing score (if the state administers a licensure test at all), and defines the state standards for program approval. Given all of these variables, it's difficult to use the Title II report cards to make apples-to-apples comparisons from state to state. (For example, in many states passage of the licensure exam is a requirement for an individual to be designated a "program completer." In those states, all institutions will automatically report 100-percent pass rates.)