CAEP Accountability Measures

1.1 Completer impact in contributing to P-12 student-learning

There are several ways in which NDMU endeavors to assess the impact of our program completers on the P-12 community.

What Do Our Completers Think About How They Impacted P-12 Learning?

The first gauge used is at the conclusion of the completer experience as completers reflect upon their experiences in the field and the impact they have been able to make prior to securing full-time employment as a professional educator. Completers are surveyed and asked to identify and provide examples of how they have made this impact on P-12 learning and development.

When asked about their impact on student growth, initial program completers highlighted their success in supporting students with disabilities to access general education, utilizing proficiency charts to engage students in their learning, and demonstrating above-average growth in students with special needs by using formative data. Several also mentioned specific improvements in student performance due to their instruction and engagement in writing.

Regarding areas of strength, initial completers reported proficiency in building relationships with students, guiding instruction through data, leading programs for students with exceptionalities, and fostering growth in student outcomes. They also emphasized their strengths in relationship-building within the school community, organizational skills, patience with special education students, and effective communication, including developing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and maintaining positive rapport with parents. In terms of areas for improvement, initial completers identified a need for a deeper understanding of biological learning mechanisms, better time management and organization, consistency, flexibility, quick thinking, and improved classroom management, particularly in handling behavior issues. Additional comments from initial completers included gratitude for the guidance received during their program, requests for more lesson planning support, positive feedback on the program, and suggestions for better foreign language methods courses.

Advanced program completers, when asked about their impact on student growth, mentioned creating data-aligned interventions, focusing on social and emotional learning, and supporting student voice and literacy in urban education. For areas of strength, advanced completers highlighted their abilities in analyzing student needs and data to create effective plans, demonstrating communication, collaboration, compassion, consistency, and reliability. Regarding areas for improvement, advanced completers pointed out their tendency to focus more on arts and humanities, and the need to stay aligned with changing curricula standards. In additional comments, advanced completers shared insights about misalignment of coursework with certain certification requirements, the need for more diverse input in leadership teams, and the necessity for a deeper understanding of language acquisition and grammar to support the implementation of effective English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs. The following link “Completer Perceptions of Impact on P12 Learning”

What Do Our New Educators Think (after a full year of teaching) How They Impacted P-12 Learning?

NDMU, as part of a consortium of Maryland colleges and universities, opted to explore this question with our program completers after they had completed one full year of teaching. We have completed this inquiry for three cycles, consulting with completers from 2018-19, from 2019-20 and 2020-21, after each cohort had taught for one full year. We also surveyed their employers at the same time.

There are several ways in which NDU endeavors to assess the impact of our program completers on the P-12 community.

What Do Our Completers Think About How They Impact P-12 Learning?

The perceptions of new teachers regarding their preparedness in various aspects of teaching have been tracked over three academic years, revealing valuable insights into their self-assessed growth and areas needing further development. In the 2021-22 academic year, new teachers felt moderately confident in understanding and planning for the diverse needs of students, with mean responses of 3.74 for both areas. This confidence slightly fluctuated in the subsequent years, with understanding the diverse needs of students improving to 3.89 in 2022-23 and reaching 4.00 in 2023-24. However, planning for these needs saw a slight decline, dropping to 3.67 in 2022-23 and 3.5 in 2023-24.

Regarding content knowledge, the mean response was 3.72 in 2021-22, which decreased to 3.61 in 2022-23 and further to 3.5 in 2023-24. Despite this, the ability to effectively teach the required content showed a positive trend, starting at 3.53 in 2021-22 and increasing to 3.67 in 2022-23 and 3.75 in 2023-24. Creating a respectful learning environment saw consistently high scores, starting at 3.84 in 2021-22, slightly increasing to 3.88 in 2022-23, and reaching 4.00 in 2023-24. Similarly, the ability to implement effective instruction that engages students improved steadily from 3.63 in 2021-22 to 3.78 in 2022-23, and 4.00 in 2023-24.

In terms of assessment implementation, the mean response began at 3.58 in 2021-22, decreased slightly to 3.50 in 2022-23, and then rose to 3.75 in 2023-24. Demonstrating professionalism consistently received high marks, starting at 3.79 in 2021-22, increasing to 3.89 in 2022-23, and achieving a perfect score of 4.00 in 2023-24.  Likewise, the use of technology to improve student learning saw a notable fluctuation, starting at 3.42 in 2021-22, peaking at 3.78 in 2022-23, but then decreasing to 3.50 in 2023-24. Despite this, the overall positive impact on student growth consistently improved from 3.79 in 2021-22 to 3.89 in 2022-23, and ultimately 4.00 in 2023-24.

Overall, these trends indicate that new teachers feel increasingly prepared to understand student diversity, engage students, and demonstrate professionalism, while content knowledge and technology use present areas for further development.

For more detailed information about these survey results, please refer to the following link: New Teachers Perceptions 2020-2024

When Observed as New Teachers, What Kinds of Evidence Might Be Offered as Justification for Positively Impacting P-12 Student Learning and Development?

NDMU utilizes multiple sources of evidence to demonstrate meeting this accountability standard.  Four essential pieces of evidence include a survey, observations, artifacts collection, and specialized/ongoing support. Our director of clinical programs keeps a list of former interns with alternate contacts. Once a year, we send out a survey to each former intern which contains questions in regard to their teaching practice, as well as asks to them to supply us with their SLO’s (in the state of Maryland, all teachers must undertake an SLO project which is a pre-post academic intervention with their classes) and any other relevant information (such as principal evaluations and employment milestones). The survey questions are informed by inTASC

The results are compiled in an executive summary with quantitative and qualitative portions. The second method is a case study and is done through observations of completers (1-5 years out of our program) teaching in Maryland. The focus of this case study is the impact of our completers on their students. Former supervisors observe their former interns with an observation tool aligned with the InTASC standards. At these observations, supervisors collect a lesson plan, examples of student achievement demonstrating how the lesson's objectives were met, and any other relevant student achievement and artifacts. Further, a document analysis that looks for common themes (Creswell, 2002) of all collected documents (from the surveys, observations, and extended support) is completed. In addition, all observations are examined for commonalities. These commonalities direct the EPP toward strengths and areas of improvement. We aim for a representative sample by opening up opportunities to interns in all schools, from urban to suburban, public and private (including parochial). The third source of evidence is through extended support and coaching.

Completers can elect to work with their former supervisor and create a tailored support plan, including conferring about lessons and assessment, multiple observations, and classroom management, to name a few ideas. Data from surveys are used to ga u ge completer satisfaction, while the data from observations, coaching and artifact requests are used to gauge the impact of our completers. All observations and artifacts are collected with administrator approval. Observations and extended support are also a way to offer support to former interns after they leave NDMU and offer an incentive to cooperate with us. We have also written in a data request into the MOUs of our PDS schools. Detailed results from the survey and observations are located here.

When Observed as New Teachers, What Kinds of Evidence Might Be Offered as Justification for Positively Impacting P-12 Student Learning and Development?

NDMU hoped to explore this measure during the Spring of 2020. Supervisors of completers from the previous academic year (2018-2019) agreed to initiate contact with those they had supervised as interns the previous year and to meet with them to discuss their perceived preparedness to teach and to observe them in the classroom in order to assess the impact they are having on the P-12 community. These plans to pilot this initiative with approximately 20 new educators unfortunately had to be scuttled due to the onset of COVID-19. It is hoped that supervisors will be able to complete this initial study in Fall 2020 as new educators begin their second full year of teaching. We look forward to sharing these observations with our stakeholders.

1.2 Completer effectiveness in applying professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions

One way the NDMU describes and evaluates the impact of our graduates on students in their PK-12 classrooms is through case study analysis of performance results in partner schools. NDMU partners with 14 Professional Development Schools (PDS) across four Maryland local school systems.  Six PDS sites are in Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS): Oakleigh Elementary, Hillcrest Elementary, Johnnycake Elementary, Lansdowne Elementary, Kenwood High and Woodlawn High. Three are in Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS): Arnold Elementary, Belvedere Elementary and Broadneck High School. Three PDS schools are in Baltimore City: Medfield Heights Elementary, John Ruhrah Elementary Middle and Western High.  Finally, two are in Harford County Public Schools (HCPS): Church Creek Elementary and Aberdeen High.  An analysis was undertaken by the SOE faculty this year to examine student outcomes at these 14 sites to investigate the impact of NDMU’s PDS partnerships. A summary of one partner school follows below; full analysis may be viewed here.

Lansdowne Elementary serves a population of over 600 students that is highly diverse; in 2020, approximately one-third identify as White, one-quarter Black, one-quarter Latinx, with the remainder identifying as Asian or more than one race/ethnicity. Approximately 73% are eligible for free/reduced-price meals, over 15% receive special education services and 15% are English language learners. This suggests Lansdowne is a relatively high-needs school compared to Baltimore County LEA, where 49% are eligible for FARMS, 13% receive special education and 8% are English learners. Three recent NDM SoE graduates (two completing elementary education MAT programs in 2018 and one in 2019) serve as 5^th grade teachers at Lansdowne Elementary in Baltimore County Public Schools. Altogether, Lansdowne Elementary has four 5^th grade teachers; thus, NDMU graduates serve the majority (~75%) of 5^th graders at this school. This concentration provides the opportunity to examine the potential impact of NDMU’s completers on student outcomes. 

In 2017 and prior to NDMU graduates’ arrival at Lansdowne, approximately 40% of the school’s 5^th graders were meeting expectations in ELA (i.e., scoring 4 or 5 on PARCC). In 2019 – the most recent year for which assessment data are available -- 17.2% met expectations. However, it is notable that the ELL population at Lansdowne more than doubled between 2017 and 2020. Whereas 6.8% received EL services in 2016-17, this share had increased to 15% in 2019. Further, the PARCC participation rate for 5^th grade ELs at Lansdowne was over 95% in 2019, which may help explain the decline in performance. In mathematics performance on the 5^th grade PARCC increased substantially at Lansdowne. While in 2017, just 9.4% met expectations, in 2019 19.3% did so, more than doubling the share of proficient 5^th graders. 

Another way the NDMU gauges completer impact on the PK12 classroom is to examine success on external measures, such as principal observations, standardized tests, IEP goals and SLOs (see interview analysis here). Two cohorts of completers were analyzed using a pilot instrument that was tested on a small sample in 2019-20 and again in 2020-21: those working in 2019-20 and those working in 2020-21.  Tests on validity and reliability will be conducted and the survey revised prior to the 2021-22 administration using standardly accepted statistical methods. Most completers are employed in local school systems such as Baltimore City and County, with smaller percentages throughout the state (see completer employment here).  For 2019-20, 10 former interns completed the initial survey and sat for interviews (n=10).

Eighty percent of respondents noted that they planned for diverse needs of their students and understood the diverse needs of their students. For instance, a music teacher incorporated diverse songs in her class to cover many cultures, while another former intern noted they incorporate students’ ethnic backgrounds when appropriate. One respondent did note they were caught a little off guard by some students’ cultural beliefs (one student did not celebrate Halloween).  while demographics and cultural diversity can be challenging, it seems our students were prepared and could handle these trends. Diversity frames modern education. Demographics are rapidly changing, and our former interns prepared for this change by employing several strategies. All former interns noted that they consistently understand the diverse learning needs of their students and that they consistently plan for diversity.  Analysis of the data shows that former interns employ a variety of teaching strategies to meet the needs of their diverse learners. Some strategies that our interns mentioned have to do with connecting lessons with experience, evidencing a focus on experiential and Deweyan education. Other former interns employ SEL instruction and learning circles. The pandemic did create some obstacles, but our former interns do not employ the old “sage on the stage” model of teaching but rather use active teaching and learning strategies as well as mastery learning.  Assessments are crucial to any school and classroom. Interns employ several formal and informal assessment strategies. For one, former interns talk to family members and schedule one on one meetings, as well as check in with, monitor and talk to students to gauge their progress. Former interns also use test scores, pre-assessments, checks for understandings, exit tickets, hand symbols for non-verbal learners, conversations, oral comprehension checks and worksheets as well. In addition, all former interns interviewed noted that they plan for a diverse array of assessments to gauge student learning.

Way forward, we will continue to conduct performance analysis of our partner PDS. We are also planning to initiate our employed teacher’s tracer study. In 2023-24 session, we will execute both the tracer study and school’s performance analysis to triangulate our findings.

2.1 Employer Satisfaction

Securing information from employers of NDMU completers has always been and remains a challenge because the state of Maryland has no comprehensive data base which connects individual teacher performance with the University from which they completed their teacher preparation program. Additionally, local school districts in Maryland are loathe to share teacher performance data for reasons of confidentiality, nor do they track the universities from which teachers graduated. Undaunted by this challenge, NDMU has collaborated with other Maryland Universities to design, validate and implement a new survey instrument to document the perceptions of employers about our program completers. We are extremely proud of the results gathered during our first two years of this project to assess employer satisfaction, with empirical as well as anecdotal information. This link provides summary perceptions of completers employers from Spring 2023.

EMPLOYMENT MILESTONES

While follow-up data (e.g., promotions) on advanced program completers is not pursued in the same manner as initial certification candidates, NDMU does take great pride in the leadership roles that our graduates play in the P-12 community.  Our advanced program completers are quite often recognized as outstanding leaders in their respective fields of expertise, earning “teacher of the Year” and “Principal of the Year” accolades, as well as appointments to key leadership positions in private and public schools across the State of Maryland.  The following link provides greater detail about some of these many instructional leaders.  https://www.ndm.edu/colleges-schools/school-education/award-winning-teachers, https://www.ndm.edu/about-us/stories/mdtesol-teacher-year and the milestones they have achieved.  The School of Education also proudly displays in our SOE Hall of Fame the accomplishments of our initial certification and advanced program certification completers.  Over 30 plaques recognize these honored award recipients.  Come visit NDMU to learn more.

Survey Data obtained from initial certification program completers are obtained each semester documenting NDMU’s efforts to comply with CAEP Component 4.4/A.4.2 regarding the satisfaction of program completers.

These data consistently demonstrate that teacher candidate graduates are confident that their NDMU preparation program was rigorous and fully prepared them to pursue a career in the teaching profession. Each of these criteria is aligned to the InTASC standards. Three data reports, which follow, were obtained from the three most recent cycles/semesters of survey data: Fall 2019,  Spring 2019 and Fall 2018. These surveys included 31 Likert-style criteria that are aligned to the new InTASC standards and Danielson Framework for Effective Teaching and which assess the satisfaction of completers. This link provides the most recent cycle of completers satisfaction for Spring 2023.

Post-Program Employment:

Post program employed summary of shows trend of increasing number of program completers and they are mostly working in Maryland. This link provides the summary of post-program employment since 2019-2020 session to 2021-2022. 

Our interns also employed mostly after Fall and Spring semester. During Fall 21 and Spring 22, most of the interns employed in Montgomery county and Baltimore City. The following link shows the list of counties and number of employed interns for Fall 20, Spring 21, Fall 21 and Spring 22.

NDMU conducts employed intern’s perception survey regularly and uses the findings to improve program performance. During Spring 2023 session, our interns felt most effective at having positive relationships with students, parents, and colleagues.

The interns were also surveyed to understand their perception about the NDMU Teacher Preparedness Program. Most respondents felt that they consistently demonstrated the behaviors listed in the classroom in Spring 2022, with three-fourths of participants indicating as such, and in Spring 2023, with two-thirds of participants indicating as such. The following link will show the Intern Perception of Teacher Preparedness Program Spring 2022, Fall 22 and Spring 2023.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Notwithstanding a small ‘N’ in fall 2021, the data across the three cycles were, for the most part, comparable. The entire range of median scores in spring 2023 was within a higher range, from a low of 3.75 to a high of 4.00, showing increased perceptions of completer preparedness across all criteria. The quality of narrative comments continued to show more specifics, especially with respect to completers noting how they have impacted student achievement as the survey questions continued the past practice of asking respondents to provide specific examples. Responses continued to be insightful as well, ranging from how completers documented their impact on a daily basis to how they did so using formative and summative assessments; some respondents provided insights into how a group of students improved while others offered a single student as an example. Action research, for which students were prepared through their portfolio submissions, continued to be evident in the open-ended responses—highlighting completer skill in assessing their impact and student learning in the classroom.

2.2 Stakeholder Involvement

Notre Dame of Maryland University's School of Education Quality Assurance System was developed to ensure program accountability, continuous improvement, and stakeholder (internal and external) involvement.  QAS continues to evolve as national and state requirements change; available information from community partners (stakeholders), professional development schools (PDS), educator and educational leader partners, and completers are gathered and analyzed; and the EPP further grows, reflects, and evolves. The QAS comprises multiple measures that monitor candidate progress, completer achievement, and operational effectiveness.

An essential aspect of this process is the consideration of the functions of and purposes for gathering, reviewing, disseminating, reflecting, and making SoE-based and program-based decisions involving internal and external stakeholders. Characteristic of these decisions are efforts to improve operational effectiveness, candidate progress, and the impact of completers on student learning and development. Several systems facilitate SoE's data collection and analysis, and databased decision making for assessment and continuous improvement and innovation and entail using multiple measures and sources. Sources include Colleague, Anthology, SmartEval in Brightspace, LiveAlumni, and MSDE's Report Card Data.  To elicit outside stakeholder involvement, input, and guidance, the EPP utilizes an Advisory Council and workgroups to improve operational effectiveness, candidate progress, and the impact of completers on student learning and development. The Council is charged with providing feedback on these programs as well as furthering support and improving the EPP's capacity to meet the leadership needs of its partner local school systems and professional development schools.

3.1 Graduation and completion rates

Graduation and Completion Rates for Initial and Advanced Programs of Study are routinely assessed. NDMU seeks to obtain a goal of 80% for both those who are seeking a degree and for those who are seeking a non-degree certification. With the exception of some advanced programs, where there is a greater degree of flexibility, NDMU continually exceeds this goal. Please read a more detailed analysis about our graduation and completer rates HERE

NDMU also analyzes Completers data by their Certification area to understand the trend and uses them for future planning. Please read the details about the completers by their certification area here.

3.2 Licensure Rates and State Requirements

Praxis Core and Praxis Content Knowledge Summary Results

The State of Maryland maintains very rigorous requirements for certification. For example, an elementary teacher candidate in Maryland must pass three basic Core Praxis assessments in Reading, Writing and Mathematics; they must pass four content tests in English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies; they must pass Praxis II in their content area; and as of July 2025 they will be required to pass the edTPA or PPAT assessment. These national assessments are in addition to the many rigorous course requirements, GPA requirements, clinical experience, action research, and supervised field internship. No small challenge, indeed.

The link below provides an analysis of the Core Praxis and the Praxis Content Knowledge assessments, all of which NDMU teacher candidates have performed exceedingly well on, as reported to MSCHE annually.
Praxis core and praxis content summary 2020-2021

Praxis II Exam Summary Results

Teacher preparation programs are required by federal law to submit a report annually to the state that describes its goals, pass rates on certain exams, and certain assurances. Each state submits to the U.S. Department of Education a report that contains state-level and institutional information. These reports are available to the general public. NDMU candidates for both initial and advanced levels of certification in Maryland always meet or exceed the pass rates for the state of Maryland, usually achieving near 100% pass rate. We are extremely proud of these results; it is easy to see why local school systems are so very eager to hire our program completers. For more information, see the links below to view the full annual reports for NDMU and for the entire state of Maryland.

For more detailed information about national Praxis Exams and how students at NDMU perform, please refer to the attached report for details about our performance in 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2023-2024.

Maryland is in the last year of the phase in plan to require edTPA for all traditionally trained interns.  By Summer 2025 (Specifically July 1, 2025) all candidates working toward certification within a college or university will be required to complete either the edTPA or PPAT, in addition to Praxis tests in specific content areas.  The senate bill that was passed in Spring 2024 called for a change in who was required to complete edTPA, and that includes provisionally licensed teachers that are working toward certification and are unaffiliated with a IHE, as well as teacher candidates that are part of an alternative certification program (also, typically not affiliated with an IHE).  This allows each district to adopt their own policies surrounding certification requirements in terms of Assessment (Praxis, edTPA, PPAT).

By August 1^st, we will have 15 additional scores to add for reporting purposes.  There are eight students who are part of the Elevates grant that will submit their work by July 11^th.  There is a separate section of edTPA for the Special Education candidates (n=4), and there are four TESOL students in a class that took an incomplete in the course that was planned from the beginning.  It should be noted that there is also one student, a Business Education candidate, who was not in the edTPA course for an unknown reason, who submitted his portfolio on his own, and received condition codes in all three Tasks. 

Smilar to last year, we have increased our overall Percent Met Passing Criteria, from 80% meeting the suggested cut scores in the 22-23 academic year to 85% meeting the suggested cut scores this academic.  Additionally, we have increased our Percent Met Passing Criteria in several areas, including World Languages, Elementary Math, Secondary Math, Secondary Science, and Special Education.  However, several other areas decreased their overall percent of students who met the passing criteria, including Early Childhood, Elementary Literacy, TESOL, and Secondary English.  As some of these areas have a very low n, this analysis should be viewed with caution.

Some additional things have remained the same: the overall total of students who meet the suggested passing score in Maryland has continued to increase each year, which we attribute to increased content -specific support within the two sections of the edTPA class.  Additionally, both sections of the class have had a co-teacher who has made significant contributions to the class.  We have also continued to work with faculty to layer in edTPA language and materials into methods and other courses.

For our largest program, Special Education, over the last three years we have continued to see growth in the percentage of students who meet the suggested score set by Maryland (37).  This program is in the process of undergoing many changes, including changes in key assignments and rubrics, as well as personnel who are teaching the courses.  The overall number of students using this handbook has declined over the last three years as well, which could be the reason for the change (increase) in percentage of those meeting the cut score.  This program’s overall total score and rubric average have remained largely unchanged, though we have been able to increase the number of students passing this assessment.  As Maryland moves into its last year of the phase in process, we will have to determine what the consequences of not meeting the minimum cut score will be, as universities around the state have adopted different policies. 

When looking at overall scores, the average total score has been fairly consistent, with small shifts up or down by less than a point over time.  Rubric scores have also remained fairly consistent.  Rubrics were our candidates are showing strength (within .1 of the goal of a 3 on each rubric) include Rubric 4, 6, and 12.  Rubric 4 concerns supporting academic language demands during planning; rubric 6 deals with creating a positive learning environment; and rubric 12 is about providing feedback to improve learners’ growth.  All three of these rubrics are areas we have focused heavily on within the last several years, specifically offering additional supports for academic language, and discussing techniques around providing positive and effective feedback for learners.  Rubrics were our candidates have room for growth (scoring less than 2.75 on average) include rubrics 3, 5, 10, 11, 13 and 14.  Rubrics 3 and 5 are part of Task 1 – Planning: rubric 3 is about candidates using knowledge of their learners to plan instruction to meet diverse needs; rubric 5 is about planning assessment to meet those diverse learners needs.  Rubric 10 is part of Task 2 - Instruction, and is about analyzing teaching effectiveness, where candidates reflect on their instruction after it has been delivered and make changes based on engagement, behavior, and other classroom needs.  Rubrics 11, 13, and 14 are part of Task 3 – Assessment; rubric 11 is about analyzing student learning, where candidates have to provide whole class item analysis of their chosen assessment and then also analyze three students (typically one below grade level, one at grade level, and one above grade level).  Despite covering this in the edTPA course, this is still an area of need.  Rubric 13 is all about our candidates ensuring that their students understand and can use the feedback provided to them, so while our candidates in general are now providing positive, effective feedback, they are less able to articulate how their students use that feedback to improve their learning.  Lastly, rubric 14 is about candidates analyzing students’ use of academic language demands.  Like the feedback rubric, our candidates are now planning better for academic language demands, but they are less able to articulate student use of that academic language during instruction and assessment.  The edTPA co-Coordinators will work with the Initial Certification Committee to plan professional development for our faculty on these rubric areas and also continue to infuse these areas into our coursework during the edTPA 400/600 classes.

Once all scores for the 2023-2024 academic year have been received (August 1, 2024), the two edTPA course faculty (and co-ecdTPA Coordinators) will compare each content specific area to Maryland and National scores for candidates.  While Task 3 nationally has always been the task that is scored the lowest, we need to be able to compare our candidates by content area and by rubric to national and Maryland scores to determine further professional development needs.  This comparison will allow us to make deeper and more meaningful changes to courses during a candidates’ training, and also to the edTPA course that candidates take during internship. 

Ideally, we will have subject/content -specific sections of the edTPA 400/600 course for our bigger programs (one section each for Special Ed, TESOL, Early Childhood, and Elementary Education), while the handbooks that have fewer students will continue to be grouped together (Secondary content areas and Business Ed in one section, plus Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages, and Technology and Engineering Education in another section).  This is especially true for Special Education, TESOL, and Early Childhood, as the requirements and expectations for candidates differ from the other content areas.  Additionally, it will allow class sizes to be smaller; despite having a co-teacher for each section, smaller class sizes where candidates are grouped by content area (where possible) could really allow for deeper development of candidate skills in all three areas measures – Planning, Instruction, and Assessment.  edTPA data from 2023-2024 is detailed here.

INITIAL

Based on direct reporting from 2018-2019, 2019-2020, and 2020-2021 completers in the School of Education who were deemed eligible for their initial teaching certification, the following chart depicts the employment status of these candidates as compared to data gathered in 2013-2014. These data document a significant first employment milestone for our program completers in compliance in terms of their being able to secure positions for which they were prepared. These data are updated as new information regarding former completers becomes available. Employment information must be secured on a case-by-case basis as there is no central repository of employment information.

More specific information regarding employment of initial certification completers, by school district and state, can be examined here.

ADVANCED

While follow-up data (e.g., promotions) on advanced program completers is not pursued in the same manner as initial certification candidates, NDMU does take great pride in the leadership roles that our graduates play in the P-12 community. Our advanced program completers are quite often recognized as outstanding leaders in the respective fields of expertise, earning “teacher of the Year” and “Principal of the Year” accolades, as well as appointments to key leadership positions in private and public schools across the State of Maryland. The following link provides greater detail about some of these many instructional leaders. https://www.ndm.edu/colleges-schools/school-education/award-winning-teachers The School of Education also proudly displays in our SOE Hall of Fame the accomplishments of our initial certification and advanced program certification completers. Over 30 plaques recognize these honored award recipients. Come visit NDMU to learn more.