Teacher Education Initiatives
Teacher Preparation Education Policy and Guidelines
The Board of Regents approved Academic Affairs Policy 2.14: Teacher Preparation Education in 2000-2001 which provided guidelines to support the redesign of all teacher preparation in public institutions in Louisiana. Since 2000-2001, the Board of Regents has required teacher preparation programs to address additional expectations for initial and ongoing program approval. The policy and guidelines have been revised and were adopted at the October 28, 2015 Louisiana Board of Regents meeting.
In compliance with the Higher Education Act, Louisiana created a Teacher Preparation Accountability System to assess the performance of teacher preparation programs at public and private universities within the state. The original Teacher Preparation Accountability System was implemented from 2002-2005. Institutional reports were disseminated to the public each year. The accountability system was suspended when it became necessary to recalaulate baselines due to shifts in populations as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. From 2005 to 2013, data was released to the public about teacher preparation programs through Title II reporting and the dissemination of value-added scores that examined the growth of learning of children taught by new teachers. During 2013, the Louisiana Board of Regents adopted a revised Teacher Preparation Accountability System for public universities to be in compliance with the Higher Education Act. The Teacher Preparation Accountability System currently addresses BoR Requirement #9 (i.e., Attainment of effectiveness measures) for approval of teacher preparatrion programs.
Louisiana’s universities are now working with the Board of Regents to identify multiple measures to examine the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs for a Teacher Preparation Quality Report that would replace the existing Teacher Preparation Accountability System for BoR Requirement #9 for attainment of effectiveness measure. Efforts are being made to ensure that the measures will also be aligned with standards required for national accreditation.