The 2016 Annual Performance Report for Educator Preparation Programs is a collaborative effort that brings together K-12 schools, college and university educator preparation programs and professional education organizations all with the same shared purpose of evaluating and strengthening the ways in which Missouri prepares its future teachers and school leaders. According to DESE, continuous improvement for educator preparation is the main goal. (Photo by August Jennewein)

The University of Missouri–St. Louis performed exceptionally well on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Annual Performance Report for Educator Preparation Programs in the state of Missouri. This is the first year that the evaluative measure was made public.

UMSL’s College of Education is proud to have 16 teacher prep programs that are eligible for overall Tier rankings by the APR. Of these, 13 are ranked in the exemplary Tier I category, while three are ranked in the successful Tier II category. There are no programs at UMSL that received a Tier III or IV ranking.

Consulted about these results, College of Education Interim Dean Ann Taylor was quick to give credit to the vast network of individuals she says is responsible for making teacher preparation at UMSL such a success.

“The APR results reflect the extraordinary quality of all our preparation programs, built through partnership between our College of Education faculty and staff and districts and educators across the region,” said Taylor. “We are so proud of our UMSL graduates, who are making a real difference in the lives and academic achievement of K-12 students.”

The APR is a comprehensive measure that uses five years of data (2012-2016) to evaluate the success of college and university teacher preparation efforts across the state.

The report uses a 4-Tier system to rank four separate quality indicators that correspond with standards set by the state of Missouri for teacher certification. These quality indicators include: certification assessment pass rates, content-area grade-point averages, data culled from surveys sent to first-year teachers about their preparedness to teach and data culled from surveys sent to the principals of those first-year teachers.

Programs that have enough students and survey responders to receive individual Tier rankings in at least two of the four quality indicators then receive an overall program Tier rating. Successful programs are expected to rank at the Tier II level, while a Tier 1 rating is exemplary.

As one of Missouri’s largest preparers of educators, the College of Education at UMSL is deeply invested in the value of the findings in the APR. Its top-ranked programs prepare future educators in the fields of STEM, languages and the humanities, physical education, counselor education and more.