Missouri received a C minus overall grade for its teacher profession policies in a recent report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. C minus was the average state grade in the group’s annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook report.
The report hands out grades and recommendations to each state by analyzing their policies on things like teacher preparation, professional development and teacher dismissal. Sandi Jacobs, National Council on Teacher Quality’s Senior Vice President, said Missouri scored higher in some areas than others.
“We see Missouri having put more attention on teacher preparation policy and less attention on those teacher effectiveness policies,” Jacobs said.
Missouri received a B minus in the area of delivering well-prepared teachers and received a D plus in both the areas of expanding the teacher pool and identifying effective teachers. Mike Wood, a Missouri State Teachers Association lobbyist, said Missouri has had an overhaul in the last couple of years in teacher preparation.
“We’ve improved the standards that are involved in people that are looking to become teachers. We’ve changed the assessment program for teachers that want to become teachers,” Wood said.
Wood said Missouri is trying to get their teacher-prep candidates in the classroom even sooner so they can see what it is like to be a teacher and to start interacting with students.
Missouri’s overall grade has stayed at a C minus for the past few years after improving from a D to a C minus in 2013. Florida received the highest overall grade in the report this year with a B plus and Montana received the lowest overall grade with an F.
