NCTQ

Entry and Exit Requirements


One of the National Council on Teacher Quality's state-level reform findings is that the state should raise its entry requirements and exit requirements for teacher candidates. This page provides information on three avenues the state has taken to raise these twin requirements, as well as three broad areas it could investigate in order to further raise these standards.

We realize that there is a concern that raising these requirements might unintentionally limit diverse candidates from entering teacher preparation programs. As the state takes steps to raise expectations in this way, we believe that it can also pay appropriate respect to socioeconomic and ethnic diversity. 

Past Measures

  • Changes to the Illinois Basic Skills Test: Beginning in September 2010, each subject area of the test - reading comprehension, language arts, mathematics, and writing - will be scored independently, and a candidate must pass every subject area. Furthermore, the test's overall cut-score has been increased.
  • Decreasing the number of Basic Skills Test retakes: Beginning in January 2010, a candidate cannot take and attempt to pass the Basic Skills Test more than five times.
  • Raising academic standards: In October 2009, the Illinois State Board of Education passed an action that ruled grades below a "C" were no longer acceptable. Grades at these levels would no longer count towards a teacher's exit from a teacher preparation program.

Ideas for the Future


Entry

  • Recruit more from the "top third" of academic candidates: According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, Finland, Singapore and South Korea, countries which all have extraordinarily effective teachers, all exclusively recruit from the top third of their countries' academic talent pool. Domestically, Teach for America also recruits from the top third, seeking "individuals who have achieved results and demonstrated a range of leadership qualities". Teacher preparation programs could focus more on their completers' initial academic quality by raising the bar on such measures like grade point average and standardized test scores. 
    • Current action: The Academy for School Leadership, working in cooperation with National-Louis University and the Chicago Public Schools system, is expanding its urban teacher residency program. This program is "highly selective" and dedicated to recruiting "accomplished", passionate and committed teacher candidates.
  • Require Praxis for entry: Rhode Island recently requires the Praxis I Basic Skills test, which consists of reading, writing and mathematics sections, to determine acceptance into a teacher preparation program. Rhode Island recently had the lowest cut-score in the nation for this test; now, it has the highest. 
  • Introduce other, additional standardized tests as program entry requirements: There are other tests that could help programs get a better sense of teacher candidates' subject knowledge coming into a program. These are ACT's COMPASS and CAAP, and the College Board's CLEP.

Exit

  • Introduce specialized content-area tests for exit: Massachusetts has recently done this through its Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) structure. MTEL has added a "Foundations of Reading" test that provides a comprehensive assessment of elementary reading, covering the foundations of reading development, the development of reading comprehension, and reading instruction. It has also expanded its "General Curriculum" test to include a separately scored 40 question section on elementary mathematics. Finally, every Massachusetts teacher must pass a "Communications and Literary Skills" test that tests reading and writing ability.