On June 17, 2014, the so-called National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) will unleash upon the world its ratings of teacher training programs.

Here is part of an announcement sent on June 9, 2014, to members of the press:

Washington, DC – On Tuesday, June 17, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) will release the highly anticipated 2014 Teacher Prep Review – an annual evaluation of the nation’s teacher preparation programs. This year’s Review will include an expanded and more comprehensive evaluation of teacher preparation programs, which, for the first time, are ranked numerically. [Emphasis added.]

Grade ‘em and rank ‘em, because we can.

NCTQ is well funded. Of course Gates money is in there, as is Broad Foundation money (big supporters of Teach for America and promoters of its own brand of nonaccredited superintendent via its superintendents academy) and Arnold Foundation money (also huge supporters of TFA).

Surely NCTQ is not biased by its funders (tongue in cheek).

In yet another advertisement, this one dated June 10, 2014, NCTQ states,

This year’s edition repeats our analysis of elementary, secondary, special ed undergrad and grad programs but includes 38% more institutions with full ratings on 836. [Emphasis added.]

For NCTQ, getting “full ratings” is tough since they are a non-accredited, self-appointed, antagonistic rater of traditional teacher training programs.

NCTQ “rates” teacher training programs based upon artifacts. An NCTQ rating does not require a site visit.

NCTQ even hires students and others to gather the superficial information upon which it bases its ratings.

Shallow as it is, NCTQ feels the need to branch out, as noted in that June 10th advertisement:

In addition to analyzing colleges and universities providing traditional teacher preparation, NCTQ rated–for the first time–secondary alternative certification providers.

Now this is going to be interesting since for years the NCTQ advisory board has included TFA founder Wendy Kopp, whose organization supplants career teachers with five-week-trained, temporary labor also suited to support the burgeoning, under-regulated charter school industry.

Former TFAer-gone-state senator Michael Johnston also sits on the NCTQ advisory board, as does former TFAer-gone-KIPP-charter founder Michael Feinberg. There is also Michael Goldstein, founder of MATCH charter in Boston, which has its own “variant of Teach for America” called “MATCH corps.”

I wonder what rating TFA will receive. Hmmm….

Other notable corporate reform names sitting on the NCTQ advisory board include Bloomberg appointee, former New York City chancellor-gone-CEO for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Joel Klein; former Gates Foundation director of advocacy-gone-College Board chief of global policy advocacy Stefanie Sanford, and chief education advisor for Pearson, Sir Michael Barber.

So you can see, NCTQ ratings of programs training career public school teachers must be fair and competently executed, no?

But just to be certain they are fair, NCTQ now has two supplemental “advisory groups.” That’s right. As of 2013, NCTQ has a teacher advisory group. Though only one of the ten members has “TFA” as part of her bio, there are some education privatization hopefuls, with terms such as “Education Trust” and “Common Core and PARCC presenter” there to assure any wary NCTQ-er that this group is Serious About Reform.

The second newbie advisory group is the three-member teacher candidate advisory group. Two are from CUNY (New York) and one, from the University of Washington.

Now I can trust those NCTQ ranked grades since some *legit teacher frosting* has been added to the NCTQ cake, no?

No.

NCTQ remains a well-funded, well-advertised, corporate-reform-promoting facade. Its bogus teacher training program ratings will appear in Mortimer Zuckerman’s US News and World Report, complete with search engine headed with this statement:

Becoming a successful teacher requires good training.

The height of hypocrisy for an organization replete with TFA influence.