TO THE EDITOR
No university, no school of education in the country has been more willing to consider new and better ways of educating teachers and new and better methods of accountability than ASU and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Alejandrina Franco's letter of Jan. 23, 2012 ignores these facts in an effort to promote a new survey by the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Surveys and rankings of colleges are becoming increasingly popular but most of these instruments are seriously flawed.
In the case of NCTQ, their model focuses on a business/corporate approach to education, has no evidence-base for the strategies it proposes, and may have outlined a project that is far too difficult to achieve. And like all such surveys, its cookie-cutter approach may penalize the very schools that are trying to do something new.
The administration of the College met with Ms. Franco personally to listen to her feedback but, after careful consideration, decided not to become involved with the NCTQ until the organization gained credibility. The College will continue to monitor its performance constantly through the Teacher Preparation Research and Evaluation Project and make public the results on its website.
Virgil Renzulli
Vice President for Public Affairs
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