by Monaih Sam | Jun 26, 2013 | News Slider
The Lipscomb University College of Education’s teacher preparation program was recently named one of the top teacher prep programs in the nation. Lipscomb’s undergraduate secondary teacher prep program received a four-star ranking in a report compiled by The National Council on Teacher Quality (or NCTQ). Lipscomb is among the top four in the nation, along with Vanderbilt, Ohio State, and Furman. The schools in the report prepare 99 percent of the nation’s traditionally educated teachers, according to the NCTQ. Dr. Candace McQueen, dean of the Lipscomb College of Education, says that teaching has become very complex, but she thinks most schools are moving toward the qualities that made Lipscomb stand out. “The public needs to hear (that) the complexity of teaching is different. The teacher has to know skills very deeply. They have to know how to question. They have to know how to group students. They have to be complex thinkers themselves,” McQueen said in an interview with the Tennessean. McQueen attributes the high rating to the school’s stringent early requirements for prospective teachers. Education students are put through a rigorous curriculum. The students are expected to master the subject they want to teach and are monitored after they take jobs. Lipscomb graduates around 80 teachers per...
by Hunter Patterson | Nov 10, 2011 | News Slider
Teachers certified through Lipscomb are fairing well in their positions according to the latest state report card. Ranked third below Teach for America Memphis and Teach for America Nashville, Lipscomb graduates outshone more traditional colleges throughout the state. For the last four years, the state has done a report card on teacher preparation programs across the state. The state looks at those teachers’ impact on their particular students. The report looks at students’ scores on standardized tests – TCAP here in Tennessee – to see how much, if any, the students improved because of a graduate’s teaching ability. Once that is done, the results are then linked to the university that the teacher came from. “The connection is between the teacher prep program and how many of your graduates have some kind of statistically positive impact on students,” said Dr. Candice McQueen, dean of the education department at Lipscomb. Now a law within the state, the schools must report their “completers” to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. That means that everyone who graduates with a teaching degree must be reported to the commission so the reports can be filed. Lipscomb is fortunate enough to report several graduates as well. McQueen says the school’s placement rates are usually 95 percent or above. However, because of last year’s budget cuts, that rate was closer to 80 percent, which was still fairly high for the area. “We have school districts that really love our graduates,” McQueen said. “They will call us and recruit them, in a sense.” For this particular report, though, the state only looks at students that are in public...
