According to a statewide assessment, the College of Education at Nicholls State University has produced new teachers that are just as effective as experienced teachers.The Value-Added Teacher Preparation Assessment Model gauges the performance of new teachers by looking at test scores, attendance and other sources of achievement data from grade school students in the state. The data is used to predict how those students will perform the next year and is eventually compared to the actual results to determine how well new teachers are performing.

George Noell, the founder of the study, said that the model views an experienced teacher as one that has been working for three or more years.

In the study, universities receive one of five ratings in each content area measured. In language arts, the only content area with enough Nicholls graduates to measure the school’s performance, the university’s graduates received a two, the second highest rating.

Noell said a two is what universities should strive for. “A two means the teachers performed similar to experienced teachers,” he said. “Programs tend to cluster around a particular level of performance. We have never seen a single program shoot the whole board.”

Noell is now working to determine why certain programs prepare new teachers better than others. He said he has been developing a “thermometer” to assess how well programs are performing. “Now we need a good measuring tool to determine why.” Noell said. The study is beginning to collect data this spring and Noell projects that a first report should be ready sometime this summer or fall.