Pass Rates

Verification of Data

Rankings

Waivers

Student/Faculty Ratio

Low Performing Institutions

How the Reporting System Will Work

Institutional Reports

Frequently Asked Questions

STUDENT/FACULTY RATIO

Supervised teaching information

Question: How should institutions of higher education (IHEs) provide information on the number of faculty and on the student-faculty ratio in supervised teaching in the institutional questionnaire? (See the item in the institutional questionnaire on page 46 of the guide.)

Answer: Section 207 requires that IHEs report information on the faculty-student ratio in supervised practice teaching. (The reporting guide converts this ratio to a student-faculty ratio for ease of interpretation.) This ratio is to be reported in "publications such as school catalogs and promotional materials sent to potential applicants, secondary school guidance counselors, and prospective employers of the institution's program graduates," as well as in the institutional questionnaire. This information will provide consumers with information to make better choices regarding enrollment in teacher preparation programs and hiring program completers. States are not required to include IHE student-faculty ratios, or the related information that institutions provide them on the number of faculty and students who participate in supervised teaching in the state reports they will submit to the U.S. Department of Education (ED).

In the institutional questionnaire, IHEs must separately report the numbers of supervising regular faculty who, at any time during the academic year, have full-time appointments, who have part-time appointments, and who are (in name or effect) clinical faculty with rights and responsibilities of regular faculty. The questionnaire also requires that IHEs report the total number of students (in regular and alternative teacher preparation programs) who were in programs of supervised student teaching during the academic year. The total of the three categories of faculty along with the number of students involved in practice teaching over the course of an academic year are the numbers to be used in calculating the student-faculty ratio.

If IHEs offer supervised student teaching in only one term (e.g., semester, quarter, or trimester) or for the entire academic year, the numbers reported in the institutional questionnaire should reflect the number of faculty who supervise student teachers for that time period. But for IHEs that, depending on the term of the academic year, offer supervised teaching to different students (and perhaps by different faculty) the student-faculty ratio calculated as provided in the institutional questionnaire may not be provide the public the information that truly reflects the supervised teaching that the IHEs offer.

The Department encourages IHEs that conduct supervised practice teaching to different groups of students throughout an academic year to respond to the institutional questionnaire with an average student-faculty ratio for all the terms in which practice teaching is offered during the entire academic year. Instead of reporting the cumulative number of faculty and students in supervised teaching for the entire academic year as described above, these IHEs are encouraged to report (1) the average number of faculty, (2) the average number of students, and (3) the average faculty-student ratio, over all terms of the academic year in which they offer supervised practice teaching.

In addition, because IHEs may use the three types of faculty in supervising practice teaching to varying degrees of intensity, the total number of supervising faculty may not accurately reflect the amount of faculty involvement in supervised student teaching. Thus, a simple count of faculty (or any student-faculty ratio using that number) cannot be used to accurately compare the level of faculty supervision across IHEs, and neither section 207 nor the reporting guide requires states to compile for the public IHE-by-IHE information that might be used to make these comparisons. Only consistent use of full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty numbers would make comparisons of this kind useful. The reporting guide does not require faculty FTE numbers to be reported because ED determined that the additional precision such numbers would offer would not offset the additional burden such calculations would place on IHEs.

As with other areas of the reporting guide, IHEs are free to report supplemental information in their institutional questionnaires and publications that can provide a more complete picture of faculty support for students during supervised teaching. For example, those IHEs having relatively few faculty intensively involved in supervising practice teaching will report a relatively high student-faculty ratio. Some of these IHEs, in fact, may have their faculty working very intensively with students during supervised teaching. In situations such as these, IHEs are encouraged to see whether inclusion of supplemental information can help to better describe their program of faculty-supervised instruction. In addition, states may wish to work with their IHEs to develop a format to collect supplemental information that will help to better explain the approaches to practice teaching taken by teacher preparation programs in their state.