State Ranks Teacher Prep Programs

August 15, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: A ranking of the performance of the state's colleges and universities in preparing future teachers contains good and bad news for Calvin College.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/teacher-rankings.htm

A ranking of the performance of the state's colleges and universities in preparing future teachers contains good and bad news for Calvin College.

The good news is Calvin ranked first in the state -- tied with the University of Michigan -- on the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) scores. Calvin scored a perfect 30 of 30 points on the MTTC and its 98 percent pass rate on the test was matched only by the University of Michigan.

The MTTC Web site notes that the test is designed to identify those candidates who have the level of knowledge required to perform satisfactorily as entry-level teachers in their fields of specialization.

Sue Hasseler is associate dean for teacher education at Calvin and she says that having such high scores on the MTTC is gratifying. But she acknowledges that Calvin has work to do in at least one area in the state's recent evaluation.

Calvin scored no points, out of a possible five, in the diversity category.

"We know that we need to attract more ethnic minority students into teacher education," she says, "and we are not content with our performance in that area. In fact, we have a plan in the teacher education program for addressing that shortfall and we are very committed to working at it and doing better."

Calvin had four percent ethnic minorities among its teacher candidates for 2005-2006. At five percent Calvin would have scored three points in that category.

Another area of good news for Calvin, however, was the student teacher survey where Calvin earned 10 of a possible 10 points. That section of the state's ranking measures how ready student teachers feel in each of seven Entry-Level Standards for Michigan Teachers.

Calvin's total score for the state's evaluation system was 63 of a possible 70 points, a score that earned the college entry into the exemplary category. Hope and Oakland had the highest scores in the state with 68 points each. Grand Valley finished with 66 points, Aquinas also had 63, while Cornerstone and Ferris State both had 61.

Education is one of Calvin's most popular program and about 20 percent of the college's 4,200 students are in the Teacher Education Program. The teacher preparation program at Calvin dates back to around 1900.

Contact Hasseler at 616-526-6597

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Received on Wed Aug 15 08:42:13 2007