By Joan Berkes, Policy & Federal Relations Staff
The Department of Education (ED) on Wednesday released an advance copy of final regulations affecting teacher preparation program accountability under Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA), and the TEACH Grant program authorized under Title IV of the HEA. The regulations are intended to collect and disseminate “more meaningful data on teacher preparation program quality.” Through these revised rules, ED also seeks to condition TEACH Grant program funding on teacher preparation program quality, and align TEACH Grant regulations with Title II reporting system data. The Department received nearly 5,000 comments on the draft rules proposed in 2014, upon which these final rules are based.
Under the new regulations, states will have to report annually on the placement and retention of graduates in their first three years of teaching and assessment of their preparation. TEACH Grants will be limited to programs that states determine to be effective for at least two of the previous three years.
ED will allow the 2016-17 academic year for states to design their reporting system, in consultation with stakeholders, and will allow states to use 2017-18 as a pilot year. The reporting system will be fully implemented in 2018-19. The first year for which any program might lose TEACH Grant eligibility will be 2021-2022.
NASFAA will publish more details and analysis of these new regulations in the coming days.
Publication Date: 10/13/2016
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