I support the National Council of Teacher Quality’s national review of teacher preparation programs, but even a worthy project has limitations. In my first post on NCTQ’s review, I argued that the local teacher labor market curtails the ratings’ impact. A school of education’s location is likely more important to an aspiring teacher than a national rating. For many rural and suburban areas, there is one nearby school of education, a monopoly largely immune from fallout over a low rating.
Online teacher preparation programs, however, can dissolve the local constraints of the teacher labor market. Although some barriers remain concerning state teacher certification requirements, an aspiring teacher can attend an online program anywhere in the country. Consumer choice ideally translates into improved quality across the sector as teacher preparation programs compete for students. As a result, NCTQ’s ratings—which help clarify that choice for aspiring teachers and prospective employers— could have an outsized impact improving this piece of the teacher preparation sector.
In the past 10 years, the number of master’s degrees in education awarded increased over 50 percent. Online programs account for much of this growth. Since online programs do not have the same place-based requirements that brick-and-mortar education schools have, they can scale up quickly in response to demand. While online education used to be a series of mind-numbing articles or lectures followed by multiple choice quizzes, at least one teacher preparation program is using technology to make a more efficient, and some would argue more effective, program.
Three years ago, the University of Southern California graduated 100 teachers per year from their selective Masters of Arts in Teaching program. This May, 1,500 aspiring teachers are earning master’s degrees in teaching at USC. This incredible rate of growth positions USC to become the country’s largest not-for-profit teacher preparation program by 2013. MAT@USC, the country’s first online course for a master’s in teaching, made this escalation feasible. While USC continues to hire more faculty to serve more students, the school did not have to build physical capacity. A high NCTQ rating could further increase demand for this competitive and innovative program.
Click Image To Enlarge
5/11/2012 | U.S. News & World Report highlights ideas from "Moving On Up: How Tuition Tax Breaks Increasingly Favor the Upper-Middle Class." 
5/11/2012 | In Diverse, Steve Burd comments on the Obama administration's plans to address student debt. 
5/11/2012 | Kevin Carey talks to Salon about the government's role in rising student debt.
Comments on this entry are closed.