ARKADELPHIA -- Ouachita Baptist University was ranked in the top 25 percent in the National Council on Teacher Quality's latest ratings for undergraduate programs that prepare high school teachers.
The nationwide study named Ouachita in the top one-fourth of the 717 programs ranked nationwide based on the program admission standards, subject-area preparation, requirements for courses on instructional methods, guidance on how to manage a classroom and the high quality of practice opportunities.
"What a pleasure it is to work every day with the high quality faculty and students in Ouachita's teacher education program," said Jeff Root, dean of Ouachita's Huckabee School of Education. "Ranking systems cannot appropriately measure everything a campus community has to offer, but it's definitely an honor for the teacher education program to be so highly rated and ranked by the NCTQ."
"At a time when fewer than half of the nation's teacher prep programs successfully show future teachers both what to teach and how to teach it, it's great to see programs like Ouachita proving that there is a better way," said Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ. "Programs in our top 25 percent understand that their most important job is to deliver well prepared teachers to classrooms by paying a lot of attention to the nuts and bolts of what it takes to become effective."
At Ouachita, students combine on-campus instruction with the valuable experience of observing teachers in the Arkadelphia school district before student teaching with one of many partner districts.
"I have great confidence that our education majors will be outstanding teachers upon graduation," Root said. "It's a well-designed system led by experienced and capable faculty members in the education department and in each of the subject matter areas."
School on 11/26/2017