College of Education & Human Sciences

The State of Tennessee and Tennessee Tech University track, monitor, and measure the impact of our teachers on student learning, growth, and development. Below are measures that are used to assess this impact. This data is used to inform college-wide as well as programmatic improvement within the College of Education & Human Sciences.

Measure 1

Teacher effectiveness is measured by the State of Tennessee and Tennessee Tech University in a few ways that are explained in the sections below.

Tennessee Value-Added Assessment (TVAAS)

The first way is via the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS). TVAAS measures the impact that teachers have on their students' academic progress. Rather than measuring proficiency, TVAAS specifically captures student growth so as to better represent the effect that teachers and schools can have on students. TVAAS is scored from levels 1-5. Levels 1 and 2 indicate that a teacher's students are making less than expected growth, Level 3 indicates that students are making expected growth, and Levels 4 and 5 indicate that students are exceeding expected growth.

In the most recent State of TN Report Card (2024), Tennessee Tech University had 52% (n = 248) of cohort members score at Level 3 or above and 21% (n = 248) score at Level 4 or above on TVAAS. This was near the state averages of 60.3% and 25.1%, respectively.

A detailed breakdown and disaggregated data can be found on the Tennessee State Board of Education website.

Level of Overall Effectiveness (LOE)

The State of Tennessee also measures completer effectiveness using a metric called the Level of Overall Effectiveness (LOE). LOE scores include multiple measures of a teacher's performance in the classroom including classroom observation scores and TVAAS scores. This metric reports the percentage of cohort members who earned a level of overall effectiveness and includes a scale from 1-5 where a score of 3 indicates "At Expectations" and a score of 4 indicates "Above Expectations".

In the most recent State of TN Report Card (2024), Tennessee Tech University had 89.4% (n = 1,104) of cohort members score at Level 3 or above and 59.8% (n = 1,014) score at Level 4 or above on LOE. This was near the state averages of 89.4% and 61.1%, respectively.

A detailed breakdown and disaggregated data can be found on the Tennessee State Board of Education website.

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Previous years' measures of teaching effectiveness are available:

2022 Measures of Completer Effectiveness

2021 Measures of Completer Effectiveness

2020 Measures of Completer Effectiveness 

2019 Measures of Completer Effectiveness

Measure 2

Stakeholder Involvement

The College of Education & Human Sciences at Tennessee Tech gathers internal stakeholder feedback and program design/evaluation recommendations on a continual basis. Once gathered, this feedback is summarized and presented to two decision-making bodies within the College of Education & Human Sciences, the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) and the Teacher Education Committee (TEC). Both groups evaluate relevant feedback and make recommendations based on existing data and current/future trends (e.g., enrollment, employment trends, etc).

Employer Feedback

Employer feedback is gathered primarily through surveys. The  employer survey was not distributed during AY 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the employer survey instrument was reviewed and updated in AY 2021-2022. Data from the 2022-2023 distribution of the survey is below along with feedback from the 2019-2020 employer survey. 

View 2022-2023 Employer Feedback

2019-2020 Employer Feedback.

Measure 3

The Tennessee Educator Preparation Report Card provides a public view of the competencies of Tennessee Tech's candidates, as measured by multiple assessments required to obtain a teacher or leader licensure. Tennessee Tech met expectations on the 2024 Tennessee Report Card in the area of candidate assessment, which is comprised of pedagogical assessment pass rate and content assessment pass rate.

For the 2022-2023 academic year, 97.9% (n = 665) of Tennessee Tech University teacher candidates passed their pedagogical assessment(s). This percentage includes cohort members who passed either the edTPA assessment within two attempts. This is above the state average of 97.2%.

Additionally, 85% (n = 1,296) of candidates passed content assessments required for their endorsement area(s) within two attempts. This includes both subject-area assessments, which measure cohort members' knowledge of the subject they will be teaching, and literacy assessments, which measure cohort members' knowledge about teaching reading. This is in line with the state average of 88.6%.

Finally, Tennessee Tech graduates had a first-time pass rate of 82.1% for the literacy assessment. This assessment is only required for certain licensure areas and is comparable to the state average of 82.3%.

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Previous years' measures of candidate competency at completion:

2022 Measures of Candidate Competency at Completion

2021 Measures of Candidate Competency at Completion

2020 Measures of Candidate Competency at Completion

2019 Measures of Candidate Competency at Completion

 

Measure 4

Information about Tennessee Tech's teacher candidates and their resulting employment in Tennessee public schools is collected and reported through the Tennessee State Board of Education Report Card. The report card includes important teacher retention metrics such as first-year employment in Tennessee public schools as well as second and third year retention rates. 

The rate of first-year employment in Tennessee public schools reports the percentage of cohort members who were employed in Tennessee public schools within one year of completing their preparation program or within one year of enrolling in a job-embedded program. Additionally, the second and third year retention rates report the percentage of first-year employed cohort members who remained teaching in Tennessee public schools for a second and third year, respectively. 

In the most recent report card, Tennessee Tech reported a rate of first-year employment in Tennessee public schools of 84.3% (n = 778), which is higher than the state average of 80.3%. Tennessee Tech also had higher reported second (93.9%, n = 479) and third year (85%, n = 226) retention rate when compared to the state averages of 93.6% and 78.8%, respectively.  Overall, Tennessee Tech "Exceeds Expectations" in the area of candidate employment on the 2024 State of Tennessee Report Card. 

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See a detailed breakdown of these metrics:
2024 Employment and Retention section of the report card.

Employment locations of Tennessee Tech's recent completers and job-embedded candidates can be found on the Tennessee State Board of Education's website (2023).