Teacher preparation programs face new requirements

Recent efforts to transform the teacher workforce have included a focus on increasing the selectivity for entry into teacher preparation programs. While this approach to improving P-12 student outcomes may be good for the teaching profession in the long run, increasing selectivity in a field that is currently struggling to recruit candidates will likely decrease the number of admitted students in many teacher preparation programs. In the short-term, these efforts will have consequences for both preparation programs and the school districts they serve.

Standard 3.2 of the Council for Educator Preparation (CAEP)’s new standards explicitly defines admissions requirements in two ways: 

1. A provider must ensure “that the average grade point average of its accepted cohort of candidates meets or exceeds the CAEP minimum of 3.0.” 
2. A provider must ensure that “the group average performance on nationally normed ability/ achievement assessments such as ACT, SAT, or GRE is in the top 50 percent from 2016-2017,” the top 40% in 2017-2018, and the top 33% by 2020.

Just over half (51%) of more than 2,100 teacher preparation providers in the United States are CAEP accredited, and these providers enroll about 65% of all teacher preparation candidates. 

 To get a better sense of how CAEP’s selectivity standards might impact the teacher preparation market, this report examines current GPA standards across providers and the potential effect of the nationally normed achievement test requirement on the field.