The Latest NCTQ Technical Report Does Not Meet Basic Academic Standards

Now, the National Council on Teacher Quality, NCTQ, recently put out another technical report.

This technical report graded 700 teacher preparation programs across the country.

However, a critical evaluation shows why this report can't be taken seriously anymore.

It contains an abundance of misinformation, disinformation, and convenient inaccuracies.

And it's not known if these were intentional on the part of the writers or a result of a lack of knowledge.

And this chapter contains my initial analysis, but first a little context.

Part one, the necessity of analyses and critical evaluations.

Academia or the Academy refers to the community of scholars and researchers who seek new knowledge.

And within the Academy, members seek to maintain standards within their respective academic fields.

This means we critically evaluate each other's work.

And this is an important part of the academic process.

This type of critical evaluation, along with accompanying academic discourse, keeps our various academic fields evolving.

Now, academic discourse has traditionally occurred through our books, journals, and academic conferences.

But today, increasingly, these conversations also occur on various social media platforms.

This is a healthy development as it opens up the conversation to a wider audience and more participants.

However, the one thing missing on social media platforms, as you know, is any form of peer review or checks and balances.

Anybody can write things or say things.

And in this sense, the conversations taking place on social media are no different from this NCTQ technical report.

Literacy instruction is a field within the Academy, and I am a scholar in the field of literacy instruction.

As such, I will be analyzing and critically evaluating this technical report on its merit.

Nobody gets a free ride in the Academy.

In the Academy, we must all be held accountable for our words.

And I would expect that someone will do the same type of evaluation with this chapter.

And that is a wonderful thing.