Dive Brief:
- The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute issued a report Tuesday calling for lawmakers to toughen admissions standards at the state's education schools, with state performance evaluations linked to the programs they graduate from.
- The conservative think tank's report also suggests a common admissions test, a minimum GPA requirement of 2.5 to 3.0 and that education schools admit only students in the top half of their college class.
- Administrators at the education schools fired back, saying that several recent changes are already improving teacher quality, including a state law that requires the schools to report students' scores on licensure exams.
Dive Insight:
Another change takes effect in 2015 and requires schools to administer and publicly post results of a new required Education Teacher Performance Assessment. Wisconsin isn't the only state beefing up standards for prospective teachers—New York recently tightened standards for the State University of New York's 17 education programs.