Sec. 1. (a) As used in this section, “teacher candidate” means an individual recommended for an initial teaching license from a teacher preparation program located in Indiana.

     (b) As used in this section, “teacher preparation program” includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) A teacher education school or department.

(2) A transition to teaching program under IC 20-28-4.

(3) Any other entity approved by the department to offer a course of study leading to an initial teaching license.

     (c) The department shall:

(1) arrange a statewide system of professional instruction for teacher education;

(2) accredit and review teacher preparation programs that comply with the rules of the department;

(3) approve content area licensure programs for particular kinds of teachers in accredited teacher preparation programs; and

(4) specify the types of licenses for individuals who complete programs of approved courses.

     (d) The department shall work with teacher preparation programs to develop a system of teacher education that ensures individuals who complete teacher preparation programs are able to meet the highest professional standards.

     (e) Before July 1, 2015, the department shall establish standards for the continuous improvement of program processes and the performance of individuals who complete teacher preparation programs. The state board shall adopt rules containing the standards not later than two hundred seventy (270) days after the department finishes the standards.

     (f) The standards established under subsection (e) must include benchmarks for performance, including test score data for each teacher preparation entity on content area licensure tests and test score data for each teacher preparation entity on pedagogy licensure tests.

     (g) Each teacher preparation program shall annually report the program’s performance on the standards and benchmarks established under this section to the department. The department shall make the information reported under this subsection available to the public on the department’s website. Each teacher preparation program shall make the information reported under this subsection available to the public on the teacher preparation program’s website. In addition to reporting performance, each teacher preparation program must report to the department the following:

(1) The attrition, retention, and completion rates of teacher candidates for the previous three (3) calendar years. The teacher preparation program must also provide underlying data, as determined by the department, used as part of calculating the teacher preparation program’s retention rates.

(2) The number of teacher candidates in each content area who complete the teacher preparation program during the year, disaggregated by ranges of cumulative grade point averages.

(3) The number of teacher candidates in each content area who, during the year:

(A) do not pass a content area licensure examination; and

(B) do not retake the content area licensure examination.

     (h) In making information available to the public on the department’s website, the department shall include in the report under subsection (g), in addition to the matrix ratings described in subsection (i), the following information:

(1) Average scaled or standard scores of teacher candidates who complete teacher preparation programs on basic skills, content area, and pedagogy licensure examinations.

(2) The average number of times teacher candidates who complete a teacher preparation program take each licensing test before receiving a passing score and the percentage of teacher candidates who receive a passing score on each licensing test on the teacher candidates’ first attempts.

     (i) Not later than July 30, 2016, the department and the commission for higher education, in conjunction with the state board, the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc., and teacher preparation programs, shall establish a matrix rating system for teacher preparation programs based on the performance of the programs as demonstrated by the data collected under subsections (g) and (h). The matrix rating system may not rank or compare teacher preparation programs. The matrix rating system must be based on data collected for teachers who initially receive their teaching license during the previous three (3) years. The department shall make the matrix ratings available to the public on the department’s website.

     (j) Each teacher preparation program shall report to the department, in a manner prescribed by the department, the teacher preparation program’s admission practices, in accordance with:

(1) the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation standards, for teacher preparation programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation;

(2) rigorous academic entry requirements for admission into a teacher preparatory program that are equivalent to the minimum academic requirements determined by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, for teacher preparation programs that are not accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation; or

(3) the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation standards, for teacher preparation programs accredited by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation.

The department shall include information reported to the department on the department’s website.

     (k) Not later than July 30, 2016, the department and the commission for higher education, in conjunction with the state board, the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc., and teacher preparation programs, shall establish a minimum rating under the matrix rating system established under subsection (i) that teacher preparation programs must achieve to avoid referral under subsection (l).

     (l) Not later than July 1 of each year, the department shall submit a list of teacher preparation programs that do not meet the minimum rating established under subsection (k) or the requirements of section 3.1 of this chapter to the commission for higher education and the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc. for one (1) of the following actions:

(1) In the case of a state educational institution, the commission for higher education shall place the teacher preparation program on an improvement plan with clear performance goals and a designated period in which the performance goals must be achieved.

(2) In the case of a proprietary postsecondary educational institution, the commission for higher education shall recommend to the teacher preparation program an improvement plan with clear performance goals and a designated period in which the performance goals should be achieved.

(3) In the case of a nonprofit college or university, the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc., shall coordinate a peer review process to make recommendations to the peer institution in achieving the department’s performance metrics.

     (m) The department shall approve at least two (2) accreditors that:

(1) accredit teacher preparation programs; and

(2) are recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation;

to accredit teacher preparation programs for use in Indiana.

     (n) Not later than December 31, 2024, the department and the commission for higher education, in conjunction with the state board, shall partner with teacher preparation programs to receive an outside evaluation by a nationally recognized nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leverages evidence based approaches on the science of reading to evaluate teacher preparation reading instruction programs.

[Pre-2005 Elementary and Secondary Education Recodification Citation: 20-6.1-2-1.]

As added by P.L.1-2005, SEC.12. Amended by P.L.246-2005, SEC.147; P.L.254-2013, SEC.2; P.L.192-2014, SEC.2; P.L.233-2019, SEC.1; P.L.41-2022, SEC.1; P.L.170-2023, SEC.16; P.L.200-2023, SEC.7; P.L.243-2023, SEC.6; P.L.150-2024, SEC.21.