The Illinois State Board of Education released an interactive report showing how teacher preparation programs across the state are performing.
The Illinois Educator Preparation Profile allows employers and prospective education students to scour data about college programs to see how well they recruit students of color, what percentage of graduates get placed in teaching positions and a host of other metrics.Click to hear the story:
Carmen Ayala is the state superintendent of education. She said 97% of educators coming out of these programs who teach in Illinois schools earn high marks on their teacher evaluation.
“We are also meeting our benchmark in persistence in high need schools. But doing even better in this area is critical for advancing equity,” she said.
The data also helps the lawmakers assess trends and see where the state needs to allocate resources in education. The report states that Illinois needs to improve job placement of educators into public schools and do better at recruiting diverse candidates.
Cristina Dimmitt-Salinas is the director of the state board’s regional services department.
“The system is built to identify those programs that may be struggling across multiple areas and get and be offered the support they need,” said Dimmitt-Salinas.
Only 22% of enrolled education students identify as persons of color. The report says they hope to eventually get that percentage up to half of all students.
The report allows users to filter by college and by programs within schools. Each college and university’s program is given a rating based on how well they’re doing in a certain category, but not every school and department have data currently available.
The state is facing a massive teacher shortage, made worse by the pandemic. But, based on the report, Illinois education officials said they are confident with how well-prepared teachers are coming out of their college programs.
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