Louisiana: Accountability for Teacher Preparation

An unexpected but welcomed editorial ('What Louisiana Can Teach') appears in this morning's New York Times. It focuses on Louisiana's reform of and accountability for its teacher preparation programs.

For students to learn, they need well-trained teachers. Unfortunately, far too many teacher-preparation programs in this country are little more than diploma mills. As states and the federal government consider ways to fix this problem, they should look to Louisiana’s accountability-based reform efforts.

Louisiana already has required public- and private-teacher-education programs to offer more rigorous course work, and teachers must pass licensing exams in more subject areas than before.

The most striking innovation is an evaluation system that judges teacher-preparation programs based on how much their graduates improve student performances in important areas, including reading, math and science.

For those of you who want more information on this initiative, check out the Louisiana Board of Regents web site (including the latest statewide and institutional reports), this summary from the Center for Teaching Quality, and this Southern Regional Education Board policy brief.

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