The University of North Carolina System has launched a new Educator Quality Dashboard that provides a way for the public to view statistics and information on the quality of educators around the state.
Created because of a recommendation from the UNC Board of Governors Subcommittee on Teacher and School Leader Quality, the dashboard was designed by the North Carolina data analytics software developer SAS.
“In January 2015, the UNC Board of Governors adopted a set of recommendations intended to strengthen, focus, and, if necessary, redesign UNC’s educator-preparation programs with the aim of producing a world-class educator workforce for North Carolina,” said Alisa Chapman, UNC Vice President for Academic and University Programs, in a press release. “In collaboration with SAS, UNC has successfully implemented a core recommendation: developing a public, interactive, web-based tool that ensures greater public accountability, increases transparency, and facilitates data access for all education stakeholders.”
The dashboard tracks the performance of teacher education programs in the UNC system’s 15 national accredited teacher education programs, according to a press release.
With the dashboard, the public can view “the progress and impact” of educators in different populations, geographies or subjects. They can also look at teacher recruitment, selection, preparation and performance at the system or campus level, and employment outcomes and beginning teacher retention, the press release states.
The Educator Quality Dashboard is just one piece of the Data Dashboard on the UNC General Administration website. The entire Data Dashboard can be used to look at factors such as student enrollment, graduation rates, post-graduation employment in the state and more.
“UNC has established itself as a leader in transparency, and in using data to uncover new opportunities to improve the state’s education system,” said Emily Baranello, Senior Director of the SAS Education Practice, in a press release. “As the state strives to attract and retain great teachers, this will provide a new and innovative way to look at North Carolina’s teaching talent pipeline.”
