An Educator Preparation Program (EPP) provides individuals with the knowledge, skills, and training to meet teacher licensure requirements and secure teaching positions. North Carolina currently has 47 approved EPPs housed within public, private, or independent colleges and universities. The Program Evaluation Division found the current approach to EPP reporting produces documents that are difficult to interpret, lacking uniformity and helpful data indicators. PED found the State has the data and advisory bodies needed to adopt a streamlined approach to reporting in the form of a performance-based, weighted model that reflects state priorities and assesses EPP performance individually and comparatively. PED built such a model to demonstrate the State’s ability to enhance reporting. PED recommends the General Assembly add an EPP employment performance standard to state law; direct adoption of a small group exception for EPP sanctioning; direct development of a plan for incorporating private EPP data into the UNC Educator Quality Dashboard and management thereof; and require the development of a performance-based, weighted model for reporting EPP data to replace current reporting efforts.
Relevant Legislation:
- Session Law 2018-32, Section 3.(a) directs the State Board of Education to create an annual report card in a common format for each EPP that summarizes the information collected in the annual performance reports, is easily comparable between EPPs, and is available to the public through the State Board’s website.
- Session Law 2019-149 makes changes to the indicators that are required to be contained in the annual performance reports submitted by EPPs to the State Board of Education and directs the State Board to adopt a rule to establish a small group exception for circumstances in which there is a risk of identifying individual program participants.