Oct. 11, 2001 For Immediate Release To: News Directors and News Editors From: Veronika Brown, Coordinator of Media Relations, 342-5444 ULM RANKS NUMBER ONE IN THE STATE FOR PREPARATION OF TEACHERS The University of Louisiana at Monroe is proud to announce their number one ranking out of all Teacher Preparation Programs in Louisiana's Universities. ULM has the distinction of ranking in Tier I, with a 100% passing rate, in the Quartile Rankings provided by the Educational Testing Service. This ranking is especially significant for two reasons. One is that requirements for teacher certification have become more rigorous in the last three years. Secondly, incoming freshmen are strongly prone to consider program excellence when choosing which universities to attend. These Quartile Rankings are for the 1999-2000 academic year. The ETS report places ULM's teacher education program in Tier I (100% passing rate). The Louisiana Board of Regents says individual reports on the state's universities have been developed to provide the public with baseline information about teacher preparation programs within all public and private universities in Louisiana. The reports are in response to the Title II Higher Education Act of 1998. These reports have been submitted to the Louisiana Department of Education for inclusion in a State Report that will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education by October 8, 2001. The U.S. Department of Education will review all data and submit a report to Congress by April 8, 2002 pertaining to Individual State efforts to improve teacher preparation and teacher quality. Dr. Dale Johnson, Dean in the College of Education at ULM, said, "Congratulations to faculty and administrators in all three academic department, as well as those in Arts and Sciences, who helped prepare our graduates so well that we are ranked as the top State University in Louisiana in teacher preparation. I want to commend everyone involved for this sterling achievement. We will strive to continue this demonstration of The University of Louisiana at Monroe excellence!" ULM Provost, Dr. Tom Rakes, says, "We're proud of our high quality students. The Blue Ribbon Commission initiative involving continued reform efforts will serve to enhance already exlepmary teacher education programs at the University of Louisiana at Monroe." The reports will also be used to help recruit more students into the teaching profession, to enhance the quality of teacher preparation programs within public and private universities; and to support new teachers after they enter the teaching profession. During April 2002, all institutional reports will contain more information to be incorporated into a new Teacher Preparation Accountability System being implemented within Louisiana. Universities will be assigned performance scores based upon the performance of their teacher preparation programs. All universities will be assigned a label of Exemplary, Quality, Satisfactory, At-risk, or Low Performing. Rewards will be awarded to universities at the Exemplary and Quality levels. Corrective actions will be implemented when universities are assigned labels of At-risk or Low Performing. -ulm-