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ERIC Number: EJ1214473
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1066-5684
EISSN: N/A
Raising the Bar or Locking the Door? The Effects of Increasing GPA Admission Requirements on Teacher Preparation
Van Overschelde, James P.; López, Minda Morren
Equity & Excellence in Education, v51 n3-4 p223-241 2018
Recently, policymakers have called for increased grade point average (GPA) requirements and many state education agencies are implementing "highly selective criteria" for teacher preparation program admission. These changes attempt to increase the quality of future teachers despite the inconclusive research base for such practices. Using a large sample, we examine who would be denied admission to a teacher preparation program and to the teaching profession if admission criterion had been increased. We perform descriptive and inferential analyses to determine if particular groups of students were negatively impacted by increased GPA criteria. Findings suggest that not only would it reduce the number of high quality teachers, but students of color and male students would be negatively impacted to a much greater degree. Moreover, increasing the GPA admission criterion to 2.75 resulted in no improvements in six outcomes examined, and increasing it to 3.0 resulted in mixed outcomes. Thus, policies to increase GPA for admittance to teacher preparation programs have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of future teachers with no consistent positive impact on the profession and, instead, would likely hurt the very students these policies are designed to help.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A