Lake Forest College Department of Education Lake Forest, Illinois Institution Comment Comments submitted by: Rachel G. Ragland, Ed.D., Associate Professor and Chair of Education
NCTQ fails to recognize adequately the rigor and context of our comprehensive program.A number of NCTQ’s rating methods lack validity, are methodologically deficient, arbitrary, and overlook relevant information provided.On standards where NCTQ assigns low ratings, these do not accurately reflect our program. Our disagreements are indicated and supported below: Standard 3 – Exit: Our students demonstrate content knowledge through tests, lab work, demanding course assessments, content knowledge program checkpoints, and rigorous content area coursework required before exit. We provided information that documents the rigorous nature of our electronic portfolio checkpoint system that, in NCTQ’s words, “fills the vacuum of the state licensing tests with better exit assessments of content knowledge”; it was ignored. We believe that these authentic measures of content knowledge are a stronger demonstration than any commercially available test. Standard 21 – Special Education: In spite of documentation provided, NCTQ ignored our grade–level targeted special education instruction. Students complete an extensive student study research project and clinical placement at their targeted grade level. Standard 24 – Broad Content Elementary: The spirit of this standard is not honored by NCTQ’s rating methodology, which narrowly defines broad content courses. Our candidates are required to complete broad, deep liberal arts requirements, including 40 hours of broad content courses, 13 more hours than the minimum NCTQ recommends, in addition to a full content area major of at least 32 hours. We strongly disagree withNCTQ’s assessment of our candidates’ preparation in several areas. Knowledge and skills in all areas of Standard 24 are an integral part of our curriculum, either in stand–alone or multiple course requirements. Moreover, even under NCTQ’s criteria for this standard, our program meets 2/3 of the stated requirements, not ¼ as indicated by the assigned rating. Standard 27A – Elementary Mathematics Content: NCTQ affirms, “Institutions that have a highly selective admission process can probably cover all the topics needed in two courses.” We require two courses in mathematics which specifically target elementary mathematics content. We meet the criteria, but our rating was downgraded solely because our college permits non–education majors to take these courses. Standard 29 – Subject Area Preparation Secondary: NCTQ requires candidates to have at least four minors for broad fields, each of which would require a 6–course minimum at our institution, plus a major in social sciences and natural science. Our candidates are double majors in education and their secondary content areas; broad field candidates also take a full range of necessary broad field coursework and are prepared to teach all content areas in their certification. The program suggested by NCTQ would totally eliminate coursework in pedagogy, also required by their standards, as well as additional courses necessary for the breadth of educational preparation NCTQ explicitly supports to prepare tomorrow’s teachers for the 21st century.
www.nctq.org/edschoolreports
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