Missouri Southern’s Teacher Education Department currently has the seventh highest overall pass rate in the state, according to a recent statewide report released by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Evaluators from the Council for Accreditation of Education (CAEP) began their review of the Teacher Education Program during a visit to the area in late September. During the visit, they spoke to administrators and teachers at local schools in order to assess the performance of Southern graduates in their subject areas.

“Every seven years, they come for an onsite visit, so this was the seventh year,” said Deborah Brown, dean of the School of Education. “In those seven years, we submit annual reports that are just data data data data telling them what the outcomes are, what our students know, what our students can do. Then in the spring, like in February of this year, we send them a very complex, very comprehensive report as a preceding gift for the business end before the visit in September.”

This report follows new figures on the Teacher Education program’s Missouri Content Assessment pass rate, which showed Southern had the third-largest number of students passing among the top seven.

Additionally, Southern will be the first school in Missouri to meet new standards for evaluation, says Brown.

The news was presented to the Missouri Southern Board of Governors on Oct. 16 by Brown and Lorinda Hackett, interim chair of the Teacher Education Department.