News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Tennessee State Board of Education (BOE) reports Tennessee Tech has improved its overall performance in producing quality teachers.
That according to the BOE’s 2018 Educator Preparation Report Card.
Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham said he was pleased when he first saw that all three categories had improved from the previous year.
“We’ve always believed that we produce outstanding teachers, and we know that because we go out and talk to employers,” Oldham said. “We talk to the school systems where they’re working and we get great reviews of the performance of our teachers. I think the report card is beginning to validate what we’ve always believed about the strength of the teachers produced here at Tennessee Tech.”
Tennessee Tech improved in all three categories within the State Board of Education’s 2018 Educator Preparation Report Card. (File Photo)
The report card rates colleges and universities across Tennessee on three categories, including candidate profiles, employment, and provider impact. Schools are then given a rating on a scale of 1-4 for each category, followed by an overall rating on the same scale.
Oldham said Tennessee Tech still has room for improvement in the candidate profile category but remains impressed with how far the school has progressed since 2015.
“We’re doing a lot of good things in there. A lot of it has to do with the diversity of our student body and the students going into teacher education and preparation,” Oldham said. “We’re doing a lot more to recruit and encourage a more diverse population of students in those areas. But also, we’re doing a lot better I think in terms of advising students regarding those opportunities.”
Oldham said having a wide variety of certification options for Tennessee Tech students can be both beneficial and a drawback for the university.
“That’s a benefit for our students, and it’s great opportunities for those prospective teachers, but it also spreads our resources out pretty thinly,” Oldham said. “We’ve got to find the right balance between providing certificate opportunities in those critical areas and as much flexibility as possible without spreading resources out too thinly.”
The university scored a perfect 4 in employment and 3 in the provider impact category. Tennessee Tech also scored 1 out of 4 in the candidate profile category, with percentages in all three areas increasing since the 2015-2016 academic year.
Tennessee Tech scored a 3 out of 4 overall rating, earning nearly 64 percent of all possible points. Lipscomb University and UT-Knoxville scored higher with perfect 4 ratings.
