Illinois Wesleyan University Educational Studies Department Bloomington, Illinois Institution Comment Comments submitted by: Richard Wilson, President, and Robin Leavitt, Professor, Educational Studies Department
Illinois Wesleyan University has a mixed reaction to the final NCTQ ratings of our Teacher Education Program. On the one hand, our program received high marks on many of the NCTQ standards. On the other hand, we remain concerned about low scores on some standards that can be attributed to (1) faulting IWU’s teacher education program for adhering to state standards for teacher preparation and assessment which the NCTQ finds inadequate and (2) NCTQ reviewers’ failure to understand or acknowledge documentation. In addition, theoretical and methodological issues with the NCTQ study seem to disregard the scholarly consensus regarding best practices in teacher education and the documented influences on student academic performance. The end result is an incomplete and somewhat distorted portrait of the IWU Teacher Education Program. We have invited the NCTQ to visit the Illinois Wesleyan campus to talk with our faculty and students, to sit in our professional education and major content classes, to review candidate work products and performance in the field, and to consult with clinical faculty with whom we collaborate to provide a high quality program in teacher education. Doing so would have generated a more accurate and comprehensive insight and understanding into the quality and integrity of our program and our graduates. It is our belief that even a brief visit to our campus would have given Advance Illinois and the NCTQ a better understanding of the character and quality of our program with respect to our mission. It is regrettable that the NCTQ did not respond to these invitations. The NCTQ has taken the stance that State of Illinois standards for teacher preparation programs are inadequate, and this view clearly influenced NCTQ reviewers’ analyses. We recommend that the issues the NCTQ has with teacher education programs in Illinois be taken up with the state agency responsible for accreditation: the Illinois State Board of Education. It is the responsibility of the ISBE to determine whether or not state institutions of higher education follow best practices in teacher education and then to hold institutions accountable. Illinois Wesleyan has undergone several comprehensive and rigorous on–site state–mandated peer reviews to demonstrate how we meet nationally aligned standards for the preparation of teachers. The IWU Teacher Education Program engages in ongoing systematic and comprehensive self–evaluation in accord with state and national standards for teacher education programs. We welcome meaningful conversations about how we might better prepare teachers for the challenges they will face. Confident in the quality of our program, we invite the public to visit our campus and to observe IWU teacher graduates in action in local schools throughout Illinois.
www.nctq.org/edschoolreports
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