Marshall University’s undergraduate elementary teacher preparation program has been named among the top in the country for maintaining selective academic admissions requirements by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit research and policy organization.
Marshall’s program is among only 28% of the 1,276 NCTQ evaluated across the country and among only two programs in West Virginia to earn the highest distinction for selective admissions requirements in a new NCTQ report, Teacher Prep Review: Program Diversity and Admissions (2021) .
“Our teacher education students will be leading future generations and their education in ways that we may not be able to predict right now,” said Dr. Teresa Eagle, dean of Marshall’s College of Education and Professional Development. “That’s why we do our best to select our future teachers carefully and to give them as many tools as we can for their future careers.”
While academic aptitude is not the only quality of a successful teacher, it is a critical factor. Sixty years of research and evidence from nations whose students academically outperform students in the United States have proven that there is strong correlation between the academic aptitude of a teacher and student achievement.
“More rigorous admissions standards for aspiring teachers pays off, delivering the caliber of teachers every student deserves,” said NCTQ President Kate Walsh. “We applaud programs like Marshall University that are doing the important work of preparing a world-class teacher workforce that our students deserve.”
Because no single indicator of academic aptitude is fail-safe, the methodology employed by NCTQ to determine if programs set adequate admissions standards gives programs multiple paths to meet the bar, including applicants’ SAT/ACT performance, audition requirements, minimum GPA for each applicant or average GPA for each cohort of new teacher candidates.
Explore the findings and data for Marshall University at www.nctq.org/TPRDiversityAdmissions2021.