College of Education once again among top in state for teacher prep program in report card

Lipscomb's College of Education is preparing teachers for excellence and success in the classroom.

Kim Chaudoin  |  02/18/2022

Lipscomb University has once again been recognized as one of the most effective teacher preparation programs in the state as it earned high marks on the 2021 Teacher Preparation Report Card released this week by the Tennessee State Board of Education.
 
The report card was released earlier this week in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of how Tennessee colleges and universities that offer education programs and other teacher preparation providers are training new teachers for success in Tennessee’s classrooms. 
 
This year’s report marks the tenth year that state data on the effectiveness of new Tennessee teachers indicates Lipscomb’s College of Education is one of the most effective teacher preparation programs in the state. The Lipscomb’s teacher preparation program is one of only five programs that earned “exceeds expectations” in two of three categories and one “meets expectations” ratings in the three scored performance categories on the report. Lipscomb ranks again as one of the top three programs for high demand endorsement areas. 

“Lipscomb’s College of Education is excited to once again be recognized as one of the top educator preparation programs in the state of Tennessee,” said Dr. Trace Hebert, interim dean of Lipscomb’s College of Education, which has an enrollment of nearly 900 students this academic year. “The results of the report card are testimony to the talent and dedication of the College of Education faculty and staff. They also reveal the caliber of teacher and leader candidates who graduate from our programs.”
 
“They are the reason we consistently receive state and national recognition for quality and also the reason we have an array of partnerships with districts who seek our graduates,” he continued. “Many districts are regularly sending their candidates to Lipscomb to be trained and licensed as a teacher. We are very proud to serve education in this way.” 
 
Report card scores are based on data compiled about an institution’s completers from the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 academic cycles who are teaching in public schools systems in Tennessee. Due to COVID-19-related school closures, no teacher evaluation data is available from the 2019-20 school year.  The Teacher Preparation Report Card captures the abilities of Tennessee preparation providers to train new teachers for success in Tennessee’s classrooms and provides an overall picture of how well each provider is able to prepare effective teachers and meet state goals.

Tennessee has produced a Teacher Preparation Report Card since 2009. The 2021 Report Card contains three scored domains, along with two additional categories, satisfaction and provider impact, for which no scores were assigned by the state this year:

• employment, which evaluates Lipscomb’s performance in preparing educators to begin and remain teaching in Tennessee public schools; 
• candidate profile, which evaluates Lipscomb’s ability to recruit a strong, diverse cohort of candidates and prepare them to teach in the content area of greatest need; and
• candidate assessment, which evaluates Lipscomb’s performance in preparing candidates to pass the pedagogical and content-area assessments to obtain a Tennessee teaching license.

In the report, Lipscomb’s data reflected that its cohorts are among the most racially and ethnically diverse in the state. It also indicated that 56.7% of Lipscomb cohort members are filling high-need subject area staffing needs, which far exceeds the state average of 28%. Lipscomb’s College of Education also exceeded expectations on teacher licensure candidate pass rates with a 97.4% pedagogical assessment pass rate and a 93.8% content assessment pass rate. Lipscomb also posted a Praxis leader licensure pass rate of a perfect 100 percent for 2021. In the employment domain, Lipscomb also received high marks with 82.8% of its education graduates finding a job within a year of graduation with 95.6% of those remaining in their teaching positions in Tennessee public schools, which exceeds the state average. 
 
“We are thrilled that the report card continues to reflect our partnerships with schools and educators across the state. We strive to collaborate and meet the needs of districts so that they can continue to support students across our state,” said Dr. Megan Parker Peters, interim associate dean and director of accreditation, assessment and research in Lipscomb’s College of Education. “The data celebrate the quality and care provided by the College of Education. We are thrilled to share data that reflects what we know about our faculty and the candidates that come through our programs.”

Each domain consists of two to six metrics, and the report includes three years of provider data. The 2021 report included 513 Lipscomb completers, data showing Lipscomb to be the largest teacher preparation program among all private universities in the state and the fifth largest overall.

The Teach for America Nashville-Chattanooga program, which has a longstanding partnership with Lipscomb’s College of Education, also received high marks on the report card as it was also one of five programs to earn “exceeds expectations” in two of three categories and one “meets expectations” ratings in the three scored performance categories on the report.
 
The goal of the Teacher Preparation Report Card is to create a user-friendly tool that provides focused information about providers, the effectiveness of graduates and promotes stakeholder conversations about continuous improvement. The 2021 Teacher Preparation Report Card is a tool for use by local school districts, Tennessee’s many teacher preparation providers and aspiring teachers. It includes multiple measures to offer an overall picture of a college, university or preparation provider’s success in meeting Tennessee’s goals for instructing effective teachers.
 
The report card provides focused information about the effectiveness of graduates and is designed to promote continuous improvement of preparation programs and highlight the importance of strong partnership with school districts. To that end, the report card also provides transparency and metrics to show progress toward meeting key state needs, including a teacher workforce that better reflects the student population and addresses high-demand subject areas. 
 
The 2021 Teacher Preparation Report Card can be found online at teacherprepreportcard.tn.gov. Lipscomb University’s College of Education offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees in a variety of academic programs. 

This is the latest recognition of the quality of the Lipscomb University College of Education teacher preparation program. Last fall, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) announced that Lipscomb University is one of 26 providers from 17 states and the United Arab Emirates to be recognized for quality and excellence as recipients of the 2021 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement. These institutions were recognized based on data trends to achieve accreditation with no stipulations or areas for improvement.
 
In summer 2021, the college received $1 million in Grow Your Own grants from the Tennessee Department of Education. In October 2020, its undergraduate and graduate elementary teacher preparation programs were once again named among the top in the nation by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). In the NCTQ’s 2020 Teacher Prep Review: Clinical Practice and Classroom Management, Lipscomb University’s undergraduate and graduate elementary teacher prep programs were among only 17 elementary programs in the country that earned an A in both clinical practice and classroom management, and serve as a model of excellence for others according to the NCTQ report. 
 
Since 2013, the National Council for Teacher Quality has consistently ranked Lipscomb’s College of Education programs among the top in the nation, ranking them as high as No. 1 nationally in 2014. Lipscomb's undergraduate secondary teacher preparation program is among the 120 programs in the NCTQ book Start Here to Become a Teacher, and the organization gave Lipscomb one A+ and three A grades in various teacher preparation categories.
 
In 2015, the College of Education was ranked the No. 15 best value in the nation and among the 35 "Top Colleges for Content Preparation" in the nation by NCTQ. The College of Education was named the 2016 Model of Excellence in Partnerships by the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education among numerous other state and national honors in recent years. 
 
In addition, Lipscomb is consistently ranked among the top-rated teacher preparation programs Tennessee State Board of Education’s Educator Preparation Report Card. In 2019, the College of Education was also awarded a $2.49 million grant from the Kern Family Foundation to develop an innovative leadership development program for principals focused on character, academic excellence and business acumen in the rising generation of leaders.
 
Learn more about Lipscomb’s College of Education