Education program makes NCTQ honor roll

IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a top teacher education program, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) reports that Furman’s is among the best.

Furman was one of only four universities in the nation to receive a top rating from NCTQ for its undergraduate secondary teacher education program. The NCTQ’s Teacher Prep Review gave Furman, Vanderbilt, Lipscomb and Ohio State universities four-star ratings for combining “an eye for the talent teachers need, strong content knowledge preparation, and well-structured opportunities to practice the craft of teaching.”

In addition, Furman was the only school in South Carolina to have both its elementary and secondary programs make the review’s honor roll. NCTQ assigned ratings of 0 to 4 stars to 1,200 teacher education programs; to make the honor roll, programs had to earn at least three stars. Twenty-one elementary programs (4 percent of those rated) and 84 secondary programs (14 percent) qualified for the honor roll, including the undergraduate secondary programs at Clemson University, College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina.

Nelly Hecker, chair of the education department, says Furman “owes its strength to outstanding faculty who engage teacher candidates in practices supported by empirical evidence, and to strong partnerships with public school districts that provide excellent mentors. The retention of our graduates in the field of education has dramatically increased since we extended our teacher preparation program to a fifth year of study, giving our candidates more time to enroll in content courses and more time to teach under the guidance of master practitioners and mentors.”

The Furman program is known for its high entrance and exit standards. After four years of study, elementary teacher candidates are required to spend an additional semester completing a teaching internship. The university graduates 30 to 50 teacher candidates each year.

Furman’s teacher education program is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and is a member of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the National Network for Educational Renewal, and the South Carolina Network for Educational Renewal.

Learn more at nctq.org.