Chapter 8: Neoliberal Assessments and the Rise of the Educator Preparation Program Enterprise

This research examined NCTQ’s 2013 Teacher Prep Review and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training. The reports exemplify a market-driven approach to teacher preparation with “consumer alerts” about programs that fail to “produce” effective teachers. Critical discourse analysis revealed contradictions in the reports and permitted us to consider how the reports constituted the discourse(s) of neoliberalism. Audiences should use extreme caution when examining and interpreting the reports’ findings.