Sen. Chuck Grassley today voted in favor of a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act of a regulation released last October requiring states to evaluate teacher preparation programs located within that state based on four federally-prescribed and defined criteria of performance. The regulation would require states to set up a system that tracks the achievement of the students of teachers who graduate from Iowa colleges and hold those colleges accountable for the performance of the students of their graduates. Grassley heard from teacher preparation programs at colleges throughout Iowa concerned about this rule. The rule applies to all teacher preparation programs in the state at public and private institutions. The vote gives final passage to the resolution and sends it to President Trump for his expected signature. Grassley made the following comment on the vote.
“This rule was a huge overreach by the federal Department of Education. The department tried to read provisions into federal education law about how states are supposed to ensure the quality of teacher preparation programs and define how states should do that, but Congress never created a teacher evaluation program. It’s pretty clear Congress wanted to leave it to states to determine how best to ensure the preparation of the teachers who graduate from their colleges. There’s no reason to believe states need to be micro-managed in this responsibility.”
-30-
