Massachusetts Title II Report

In 1998, Title II of the Higher Education Act was amended to require three annual reports on the quality of teacher preparation. Schools of education are to report to states the pass rates of their program completers on state certification/licensure assessments and other program data in April. States in turn are required to report to the U.S. Department of Education in October. The Secretary of Education reports national findings to Congress in April each year.

States and institutions of higher education are required to report using federal definitions, e.g., of pass rates, and uniform reporting methods. However, state systems for teacher licensure, including licensure testing and passing scores, differ in many ways making comparisons among states complicated. Different states use different tests. States that use the same test have different passing scores. Even within a state, different institutions may have different policies for when or if their education students must pass tests in order to complete their preparation programs.

Massachusetts institutions have made changes in their teacher preparation program requirements, which should lead to improved pass rates. See the "Introduction" and "Supplemental Information" sections of the Massachusetts report for details.

View the Reports

For State Report Information go to

• Title II: Technical Assistance

• Introduction
  States are allowed to submit introductory material to their Title II reports. This information is not required and some states chose not to provide it.

• Teacher Standards
  Teacher standards define the expectations that state authorities have for what a teacher should know and be able to do, or sometimes for the kind of person that a teacher is expected to be. In this section, states describe their teacher standards and how they are aligned with content standards for K-12 students.

• Licensure

  Number Licensed. Number of teachers certified or licensed.
  Regular Routes. Describes the state's requirements for regular (or traditional) certification.
  Alternative Routes. Provides information on the state's alternative routes to regular teacher certification or licensure.
  Temporary & Emergency Licensure. Details the requirements for temporary or emergency certification or licensure in the state.
  Reciprocity/Interstate Agreements. Provides a list of states with which the state holds reciprocity or interstate agreements for teacher certification or licensure.

• Teacher Assessments

  Pass Rates. Results are provided for each individual assessment and for aggregate and summary rates. Quartile rankings are provided for the aggregate and summary rates. Pass rates are reported by institutions to states in April.
  Assessment Requirements. The cut (passing) scores for each assessment, and the possible high and low score for each assessment.
  Institutions Requiring Assessments. Provides a list of institutions with teacher preparation programs that require an assessment for either entry or exiting a program. In a number of states and institutions, passing required assessments has been made a condition of teacher preparation program entry or completion. As a result, every completer in these settings will have passed all required assessments by definition, and the institution will have a 100 percent pass rate. This information is important for putting the 100 percent pass rates into context

• Teacher Preparation Program Performance
  States describe their criteria for assessing the performance of teacher preparation programs, their criteria for identifying and providing assistance to low-performing institutions, and their list of those institutions that have been identified as lowperforming.

• Teachers on Waivers
  Provides the number of teachers teaching on waivers (without full certification). Data are provided by district poverty level and by subject area.

• Improvements in Teacher Quality
  Describes steps taken by the state during the past year to improve teacher quality.

• Supplemental Information
  As with the introduction page, supplemental Title II information was voluntary. Many states used this page to provide in-depth information about their teacher preparation programs including the Title II institutional reports that were submitted to the states in April and web links to each institution.

Last Updated: March 26, 2013