Group Seeking to Rank Teacher-Preparation Programs Sues U. of Wisconsin for Data

An advocacy group that is seeking to rank teacher-preparation programs across the nation is suing the University of Wisconsin system to obtain course syllabi at the university’s schools of education, The Journal Sentinel, a Milwaukee newspaper, reported. Wisconsin said last spring that it would not participate in the controversial project. The National Council on Teacher Quality, which is working with U.S. News & World Report on the rankings project, requested the syllabi two months ago under Wisconsin’s open-records law. It filed a complaint in a state court on Wednesday, contending that the documents were public records subject to disclosure under the law. The council says it wants to evaluate the syllabi to see how Wisconsin’s education schools match up against the group’s own teacher-preparation standards for “course content, teaching method, level of rigor, and research on what teachers need to know and be able to do effectively.”