Calvin’s education program has earned the highest performance score rating of all comprehensive educator preparation institutions (EPIs) in Michigan.
Celebrate with us encouraging news for the Education Program (comprising more than 35 faculty and staff and over 500 students across the campus): On the heels of our recent accreditation visit—which affirmed the excellence of our faculty, students, and partners—we received news that Calvin’s education program had earned the highest performance score rating of all comprehensive educator preparation institutions (EPIs) in Michigan.
Since the inception of the annual Michigan’s EPI performance scores, Calvin has always received a high rating, including being the second-highest-ranked education program in the state for the past three years. This year Calvin received the highest score among all the comprehensive programs across Michigan. The EPI performance scoring system has evolved and added new data over the years and now has three components: (1) MTTC pass rates, (2) surveys, and (3) educator effectiveness ratings.
The first component, MTTC pass rates, is a calculation of how many students pass their subject area tests, such as K–12 art, kinesiology, secondary social studies, elementary education, and more than 20 other majors and minors. Thanks to the strong teaching of faculty across the campus, Calvin students do very well on the MTTC and leave Calvin with a firm grasp of disciplinary content and pedagogical knowledge.
The second rating comes from surveys developed and administered by the Michigan Department of Education. These are completed by Calvin candidates following their student teaching semester as well as by college supervisors who visit the candidates six times during student teaching. It is heartening to know that Calvin teaching candidates strongly affirm that their program provided good preparation for teaching.
The third area, educator effectiveness ratings, is based on the ratings that our graduates receive from their principals in their first three years of teaching. When principals across Michigan observe and evaluate the teaching of recent Calvin graduates, they affirm the graduates’ successful service in the classroom and school community.
While it is wonderful to have experienced a very successful accreditation visit and to have received the top EPI performance score ranking this year (and to observe the trend of many of our graduates being offered teaching positions early and often), these external markers do not capture the breadth and depth of what we are working toward in the Calvin education program. Our confidence in our program and joy in our work come from more important sources: hearing first-hand graduates’ stories of service; positive feedback from local schools and teacher partners who work with students in their multiple internships; our students’ perceptive and insightful writing about their commitment to justice in education; the feedback from principals who speak so highly about the contributions of Calvin graduates in their schools; and the regular sharing, collaboration, and innovation of the program faculty that deepens our students’ understanding and ability to live into this call to teach.
James Rooks, Dean of Education
