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W&M Joins Universities Nationally to Oppose a NCTQ Study

Schools of education across the country have united in response to a newly proposed rating of teacher education programs conducted by U.S. News & World Report in partnership with the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ).  Although the espoused goals of the project—" to ensure that every child has an effective teacher" and "to distinguish the quality of programs...and provide the field with the feedback it needs to improve"—are laudatory, the standards and methods being applied have been severely criticized as inadequate to the task. 

Dean Virginia McLaughlin has been actively engaged with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and the Council for Academic Deans of Research Education Institutions (CADREI), a national professional association which she currently chairs, to develop collective responses to the proposed initiative.   

"It's important that our W&M community understand why the School of Education declined active participation in the project as a matter of principle, for we will undoubtedly be depicted as recalcitrant and opposed to accountability," Dean McLaughlin said.  A letter to U.S. News and NCTQ explains W&M's position.