Might meeting NCTQ standards cause an education school to violate either state or federal regulations, if not accreditation standards?
This argument, heard often from education schools we studied in Texas, does not hold water. NCTQ is suggesting that institutions exceed state standards, which is certainly not a violation. In our Texas study, in fact, many education schools earn the highest rating on a variety of NCTQ standards. The one exception is our exit standards. Meeting those would require that schools establish a higher standard on exit tests than what states require on tests for teacher licensure. So they would either have to come up with different tests or demand higher scores. State regulations, rules and standards generally do not encourage education schools to meet a higher standard, but states certainly do not prohibit education schools from doing so.
