Opinion: New report finds Washington state’s teacher training schools are among worst in the nation

Liv Finne says why risk a child’s future on a teacher from a training program that’s getting an ‘F’ in reading instruction, when lawmakers in other states are actually helping parents educate their children

Liv Finne
Washington Policy Center

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) just released a new report that evaluates 700 teacher training programs in states across the country.  The report assesses the performance of state-level programs in training instructors on how to teach children to read.

Washington state’s programs did not fare well, ranking among the worst in the nation in providing qualified teachers for public schools.

Only one program received an “A”, and only a single program rated a “B”.   Both were earned by WSU for its undergraduate and graduate teacher-training programs, respectively.  Meanwhile, fully two-thirds of the programs, eight out of 12, ranked “F”, and the two remaining programs rated a “C”.

Here are the full NCTQ scores for Washington state.

Central Washington University, Undergraduate                   C

Centralia College, Undergraduate                                        F

City University of Seattle, Undergraduate                            F

City University of Seattle, Graduate                                     F

Eastern Washington University, Undergraduate