It is no secret that Eastern is known for its education program, especially when one out of four Eastern students are on the education track. However, a recent report published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, published on Nov. 9, puts forward that a majority of Illinois education graduates are not adequately prepared for the post-graduation job market.

The study evaluated 111 undergraduate and graduate programs in 53 education schools across Illinois. It also determined that the two of the biggest producers of teachers, Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University, were ranked lowest.

When rating undergraduate elementary programs, Eastern ranked as “fair” alongside schools like Western and Southern Illinois University. Elmhurst College, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Chicago were ranked highest. Programs that preformed poorly include Illinois State University and Lewis University.

However, Dean Diane Jackman said she believes that the study’s findings do not fully reflect Eastern’s education program.

“We are known for producing high quality teachers no matter what the NCTQ study says,” Jackman said. “Principals and superintendents across the state tell me that they will hire an EIU teacher education graduate if one is available. Our graduates are well prepared to assume a position as a teacher.”

Jackman said programs in education are continually being evaluated against rigorous standards. Unfortunately, the group conducting the NCTQ survey did not identify the standards that they used to grade education programs.

“(The NCTQ) study focused on inputs to the program, not the outcomes from the program. As you can see in the NCTQ chart, EIU fell in the next to the top category,” Jackman said.

Jackman said one of the reasons Eastern fell into the second category is due to the university’s differed admission requirements from the schools in the first category, such as Northwestern University and University of Illinois.

“While I may disagree with the results of this study, it provides our programs and faculty additional information to consider as we continually strive to create excellent programs,” Jackman said.

However, Eastern does an excellent job preparing its undergraduate elementary teacher candidates to teach reading, according to the NCTQ study.

Six principals surveyed regarding placements from Eastern consistently reported active participation of the education school.

As a part of the study, Jackman said the education department provided the NCTQ with the names of 10 principals the council could contact.

“We involve our K-12 partners in many different ways,” Jackman said. “They help us in curriculum redesign and work with our teacher candidates during their practice and student teaching. Both teachers and administrators sit on our program advisory boards.”

All of Illinois public institutions participate in a survey operated by Eastern as an outgrowth of the state Teacher Data Warehouse. This Teacher Graduate Assessment provides feedback from hiring districts on their graduates’ job performance one year into their teaching careers.

In their study, the NCTQ examined the detail at the design of education schools to determine such criteria as whether graduates will be able to teach reading or manage a classroom, if they are sufficiently knowledgeable about their content area, if students know about different types of assessments and whether their mentors themselves are effective teachers.

Last year, the Illinois State Board of Education approved a policy that limited aspiring teachers to five attempts at passing the basic skills exam.

The state also required applicants to pass all four subjects: reading, math, language arts and writing. Just 22 percent of test-takers passed in September under the new requirements, Linda Tomlinson, an IBSE assistant superintendent, told the Chicago Tribune.

Jackman said the university will be receiving the results for the basic skills test within the next week.

The report found that too many schools fail to instruct prospective teachers on the most effective ways to teach reading, particularly to poor students. In those schools, professors load college students with irrelevant and unfocused coursework. They do not pair student teachers with effective mentors, a problem that stunts the development of tomorrow’s classroom professionals.

Jackman believes Eastern’s education program is more accurately assessed by the recent reaccreditations of the program from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

This accreditation process is a rigorous examination of all of the teacher education programs at Eastern.

The team that visited Eastern in early November looked at all of the data that Eastern provided to them, talked with students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, P-12 teachers and administrators, Jackman said.

One area the reaccredidation focused on was follow-up studies of graduates and employers that indicate the graduates’ preparation in the content area.

Eighty-Five percent of graduates responded that they are moderately/extremely prepared for teaching in the primary subject/content area and supervisors respond that graduates are 91.7 percent moderately/extremely prepared.

“The team verbally indicated that EIU met or exceeded all of the standards for our NCATE reaccredidation,” Jackman added.

The Illinois Board of State Education is currently developing a data system to track new teachers from graduation into their careers and measure how well their students perform, but that will not be available until 2018.

NCTQ plans to broaden their study to include 1,400 education programs across the country in 2012, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Universities ranked by the National Council on Teacher Quality

Undergraduate Elementary Programs

Strong: Loyola University Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago, Elmhurst College

Fair: Eastern Illinois University, DePaul University, Western Illinois University, Augustana College

Weak: Millikin University, North Central College, Northeastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Northern Illinois University

Failed: Illinois State University, Lewis University

Secondary Elementary Programs

Strong: Northwestern University, Principa College

Fair: Augustana College, Eastern Illinois University, Loyola University Chicago, Millikin University

Weak: University of Illinois at Springfield, Illinois State University, Eureka College

Source: National Council on Teacher Quality

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-7942 or meholmgren@eiu.edu.