ERIC ED506695: State Teacher Policy Yearbook: Progress pdf

ERIC ED506695: State Teacher Policy Yearbook: Progress

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Description of the Book:

The “State Teacher Policy Yearbook” examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Nebraska edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality’s (NCTQ’s) “State Teacher Policy Yearbook” is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers could make improvements to benefit both students and teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into six areas that include a total of 27 goals. Broadly, these goals examine the impact of state policy on the preparation, certification, licensure, compensation and effectiveness of teachers across the elementary, secondary and special education spectra. Nebraska’s progress toward meeting these goals is summarized. While Nebraska has met some goals, there is significant room for improvement in several areas. Nebraska completely missed 12 goals, met a small portion of 11, partially met one, nearly met two and fully met only one.

While the state performed weakly in all areas, it has the most work to do in Area 5, “Alternate Routes to Certification,” and Area 6, “Preparation of Special Education Teachers.” Nebraska should be commended for requiring that approved teacher preparation programs only accept teacher candidates who have passed a basic skills test, though it needs to do more to hold those programs accountable for the quality of the teachers they produce. The state should also work to ensure that special education teacher candidates receive the training they need to become highly qualified, and it should consider offering at least one genuine alternate route to certification. The body of the report provides a more detailed breakdown of the state’s strengths and weaknesses in each area. Detailed rationale and “Food for Thought” for each area and corresponding goal are appended. (Contains 72 figures.) [Additional funding for this first edition of the “State Teacher Policy Yearbook” was provided by the Achelis Foundation, Bodman Foundation, Daniel’s Fund, Fisher Family Foundation, Gleason Foundation, and The Teaching Commission.

This state report is part of NCTQ’s State Teacher Policy Yearbook series. For the national summary, see ED506661

• Creator/s: ERIC
• Date: 2007
• Year: 2007
• Book Topics/Themes: ERIC Archive, Teaching (Occupation), Teacher Effectiveness, Yearbooks, State Standards, State Government, Special Education Teachers, Special Education, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Government Role, Teacher Education, Teacher Certification, Compensation (Remuneration), Annual Reports, Elementary Secondary Education, Objectives, Program Evaluation, Teacher Evaluation, Schools of Education, Accreditation (Institutions), Program Effectiveness, Accountability, Program Improvement, Teacher Recruitment, Federal Legislation, Guidelines

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