WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderReport gives Illinois a bad grade for teacher training

Report gives Illinois a bad grade for teacher training

By Katie Nilsson

WINNEBAGO COUNTY (WREX) -   A Washington D.C. based group barely gives Illinois a passing grade for how it trains, attracts and educates teachers.  It got a D+, but still ranked 14th in the report.  One of the reasons, is the highest grade given was a "C" and that was to Florida. 

Even though Illinois got a D+ it's still above close to 40 other states ranked in the report.  The report was put together by the National Council on Teacher Quality.  It's a non profit that focuses on teacher polices at the federal, state and local levels.  The group claims Illinois doesn't do enough to prepare its student teachers for jobs in the real world.  Regional Superintendent Dr. Richard Fairgrieves disagrees. "I think they're doing a pretty good job of preparing teachers and I hear this as well from administrators in the field that the teachers coming out today are probably as well prepared as they've ever been."

The group says the state doesn't give teachers a broad liberal arts education and it doesn't provide the right training in the science of reading or math.  It also says Illinois doesn't offer alternative ways for people to become a certified teacher.  "You can always do better, but again working at it and a lot of the things that they mentioned we are working at to try to improve that particular area but over all I think the teachers coming out of college and universities today are well prepared."

Fairgrieves feels Illinois does the best it can with its funding issues.  He says he'll use the report as a guide for areas to improve on.  "What are the states that are higher than us in that area, what are they doing and is that a good practice that we need to follow?"

The report also says Illinois could do more to retain effective teachers. It recommends giving districts authority over how they're paid and says teachers should get retention bonuses.  The report also recommends teachers be paid based on performance.  If you'd like to see it go to www.nctq.org.