Lincoln (Neb.) - Oct. 30, 1998 - The University of Nebraska- Lincoln Teachers College will undertake an ongoing evaluation of its recent graduates under the "Compact with Nebraska," an idea that came out of the college's 90th anniversary celebration earlier this year.
Dean James O'Hanlon said during the celebration there was a feeling within the college that there should be a more lasting, serious commemoration of the anniversary, something that would contribute to the college's mission of teacher education.
What eventually came out of that discussion, at the suggestion of David Imig, executive director of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, was the idea of the "Compact with Nebraska," a plan in which Teachers College should be evaluated by how effectively its graduates teach and how well their students learn.
The unique features of the compact, O'Hanlon said, will be two evaluations in the graduates' second year of teaching. For the first time, Teachers College will ask schools to report on the academic progress of students taught by the graduates, including on standardized test scores. Also for the first time, the college will ask parents of elementary and secondary students to evaluate the ability of its graduates to support the academic progress of their children.
"David Imig said the real issue in teacher education is demonstrating the ability of teacher education graduates to produce the needed learning in their own students," O'Hanlon said. "He said it's something that hasn't been done before, but it's something that needs to be done."
O'Hanlon said the data on each group of second-year teachers will be made available to the public so it can make informed judgement on the effectiveness of the university's teacher education programs. The data will also be used to continually reevaluate the programs.
"We won't report data on individual teachers," O'Hanlon said. "It's the school district's job to evaluate teachers. Our business is to demonstrate how well our teacher education program is doing."
Under the compact, the college will undertake additional assessments of its students around the time of graduation. The students' knowledge of subject matter will be measured not only through performance in required undergraduate courses, but also through a standardized test. In addition, their teaching skills demonstrated as student teachers will not only be evaluated by their faculty adviser from the college and the classroom teacher at the school, but also by other experienced teachers retained as independent evaluators by the college.
O'Hanlon said the first cohort of teachers to be studied
will be the 70 or so 1997 graduates who teach in the Lincoln
Public Schools. The project will be expanded across the state in
following years.
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