Miami University

• Letter sent by Miami to U.S. News & World Report in response to request to participate in the USNW/NCTQ rankings.

• Statement from Dean Carine M. Feyten:

Recently, U.S. News & World Report announced that in cooperation with the National Council on Teacher Quality, a non-profit think tank, it will publish rankings of colleges of education starting in 2012. We believe the rating process selected is fundamentally flawed and as a result, Miami University, along with many of the nation’s most prestigious universities, has decided to not participate.

We strongly support the rigorous assessment of teaching and teacher preparation programs. However, we do not believe that the U.S. News & World Report’s current methodology with its emphasis on inputs (textbooks, syllabi, course descriptions, etc.) rather than outputs (how well graduates perform as teachers) will provide meaningful information. These data only tell part of the story and miss the most important point: the quality of our graduates. And, in fact, the rankings may mislead prospective students and their families.

As others have pointed out, the review process selected is analogous to a food critic rating a restaurant simply by looking at its menu.

Because of our decision to not participate, we anticipate that our ranking may not reflect the excellent reputation that our teacher preparation program has achieved. It is our hope that national attention will remain focused on how America's colleges and universities are preparing our nation's educators. We believe it is crucial that we be held accountable to our students, to the schools that employ our graduates, as well as to parents and taxpayers.

To ensure that accountability, Miami voluntarily undergoes extensive review by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the most rigorous national accrediting program in our field. We are very proud of the results of this accreditation process and never stop assessing our programs to ensure that we prepare the best teachers for tomorrow’s schools.

But perhaps the most important evaluation of all is that of the principals and school superintendents who hire our students. They consistently tell us that Miami is supplying the most effective new educators in the field.

In fact, in two of the past three years a Miami student has been named Ohio’s Outstanding Student Teacher. We also are proud to be the alma mater of Ohio’s 2011 Teacher of the Year, a 2011 National Catholic Educators Association Distinguished Teacher (one of only 12 so honored), the 2010 Ohio Middle School Teacher of the Year, the 2010 Vermont Teacher of the Year, and the 2009 Ohio Principal of the Year.

In short, we know our programs at Miami are providing school districts across the nation with outstanding educators. We believe that textbook titles and course syllabi neither predict nor are a measure of a dedicated faculty who take a deep personal interest in the individual success of each and every student. Inquiry based learning, the mentoring our candidates receive, the transformative experiences they engage in while working in our partner schools, and the passion they sense from their professors have far more to do with developing our students into caring, competent, and transformative leaders. Miami University prides itself in offering cutting edge, rich learning experiences that reflect the diversity of our environment and the challenges of a complex, global society.