The Louisiana Board of Regents reviewed the results of this year’s Value-Added Teacher Preparation Assessment and approved Louisiana educational institutions’ budgets for the 2011-12 fiscal year at its monthly meeting on Thursday.
This is the first year the Value-Added Assessment used the same model to examine teacher preparation and the effectiveness of the state’s teachers in the classroom. The new model was developed with the help of University psychology professor George Noell to include teacher preparedness in response to Act 54, an act from the 2010 Legislative Session which requires that the model includes evaluation of teacher preparation.
“The work needed to implement Act 54 gave the team the opportunity to incorporate a number of refinements into the methods we’ve used in the past,” Noell said.
Louisiana is the first state in the nation to implement a statewide Value-Added Teacher Preparation assessment. The groundbreaking program monitors the first and second years of new teachers from kindergarten to graduate school, evaluates the teachers’ preparation programs and notes its effect on student academic achievement
Twelve universities are included in the 2010-11 results, including LSU. The University received positive feedback in each academic area measured, with social sciences yielding the highest average rating for teacher preparation programs.
“It is exciting to see that all of our hard work to redesign teacher preparation programs within universities during the last 10 years is benefiting students in Louisiana’s schools,” said Jeanne Burns, associate commissioner for Teacher and Leadership Initiatives at the Board of Regents.
In other business, the board conditionally approved budgets for the LSU AgCenter, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The budgets were approved conditionally so the board may acquire more information on strategic budget adjustments to review in the next 60 days.
The board deferred Southern University’s budget approval to allow more time to review budget balancing information and to address specific actions planned to balance the following year’s budget.
In other action, the board approved the creation of Central Louisiana Technical Community College. The decision comes after a report was submitted by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems recommending the college’s creation. CLTCC will be central Louisiana’s first technical community college.
“This is a key addition necessary to grow their economy and allow them to flourish,” said Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell.
 
____
Contact Josh Naquin at [email protected].