NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Board of Education released its eighth annual Educator Preparation Report Card on Thursday, analyzing trends among educator candidates across the state and evaluating the programs that train them.
“We are excited to bring teacher evaluation data back to the Report Card for the first time since the pandemic,” said Erika Leicht in a release, Director of Research for the State Board of Education.
That report found ten programs across the state were considered to "exceed expectations." Among them were the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Carson-Newman University, and Welch College. It also found that around 29.5% of all teacher candidates in Tennessee had endorsements in areas like English as a second language, secondary science and secondary math.
The report found around 16.2% of candidates across the state were considered "racially diverse." Only around 8.2% of candidates at UTK were considered racially diverse. Only eight programs exceeded expectations in their abilities to recruit a diverse cohort, according to the report.
Only two programs across the state were found not to meet overall expectations from the state Board of Education — Lee University and South College.
Around 97.2% of candidates across the state passed their pedagogical assessment, and around 88.6% passed their content assessment, according to the data. The report card also showed around 93.6% of candidates in the programs held onto their jobs for two years, and around 80.3% of candidates found a job within a year of graduating from their program.
