On Thursday of this week, NCTQ will release the first-ever quantitative examination of how teacher preparation institutions conduct their student teaching programs. 

 

Each year, the nation's 1,400 education schools send some 200,000 aspiring teachers into K-12 schools to complete their student teaching experience. Believe it or not, we're the first to examine what programs are—or are not—doing to ensure that these experiences are adding their intended value.

 

If you are in Washington, DC this week, we welcome you to the report's release at a 9 am to noon event in the Pavilion Room of the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW. You can let us know you plan to attend at rsvp@nctq.org.

 

If you can't make the event, but want to participate in the conversation you can read the report when it's posted Thursday morning on our website and join us on Twitter @NCTQ (use the hash tag #teacherprep). Send us questions in advance over Twitter, and we may pick yours to ask during the event's panel discussion.

 

We're excited and proud to release this report in its own right. Importantly, it also offers a preview of how we will be rating institutions on the quality of their student teaching programs for our 2012 national review with U.S. News & World Report.

 

We look forward to your thoughts and comments.