Centers of Excellence and Centers of Development for Teacher Education: Their Contribution to the Elementary Teacher Force Maria Agnes P. Ladia 1 , Remedios D. Facun 1 , Rosalina C. Garcia 1 and Nelvin R. Nool 1 + 1 College of Education, Tarlac State University, Tarlac City, Philippines Abstract. This paper provides an assessment of the Centers of Excellence (COEs) and Centers of Development (CODs) for teacher education by looking into the performance of their graduates in the 2010 Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) elementary level. The sample consisted of 3,206 examinees (2,202 first-timers and 1,004 repeaters) from the 31 COEs and 1,588 (949 first-timers and 639 repeaters) from the 9 CODs. Results revealed that only 1,256 (57%) first-time examinees from the COEs and 510 (54%) from the CODs or a total of 1,766 (56%) passed the LET. Eight COEs and 4 CODs had lower than 50% passing percentage. Only 8% of the repeaters passed the licensure examination, which resulted to the overall passing percentage of 40%. The title “Center of Excellence” for the 8 institutions and “Center of Development” for the 4 institutions needs to be reviewed because of their mediocre performance compared to the other COEs/CODs. There could be many other teacher education institutions that deserve the distinct title of Center of Excellence or Center of Development. Keywords: Center of development, center of excellence, licensure examination for teachers, teacher education institutions 1. Introduction The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) identifies teacher education as one of the program areas needed for the development of world-class scholarship, nation building and national development. To strengthen and further improve the quality of teacher preparation in the Philippines, CHED has identified Centers of Excellence (COEs) and Centers of Development (CODs) for teacher education. Center of Excellence refers to a teacher education program in a higher education institution (HEI), which continuously demonstrates excellent performance in the areas of instruction, research and publication, extension and linkages, institutional qualifications and provides excellent quality pre-service teacher education program to meet the needs of progressive teachers for elementary, secondary and special education programs. On the other hand, Center of Development refers to a teacher education program in an HEI, which demonstrates the potential to become a COE in the future. The identified COEs and CODs are expected to serve as catalyst in attaining and fulfilling the program’s mission of producing professionally competent and morally upright teacher education graduates [1]. Among the specific roles and responsibilities of identified COEs include the following: Act as role models / leaders in teacher education programs (TEP); Sustain and enhance research capabilities and upgrade professional or research graduate programs in teacher education; Provide assistance to agencies / institutions within their geographical area of coverage; Undertake activities / projects necessary in developing quality TEP; Accelerate the development of the TEP through strategic developmental agenda and projects; Develop quality instructional programs through faculty development and upgrading of facilities and library holdings; Undertake basic and applied research activities on emerging trends and developments in the field of teacher education; and Undertake extension and linkages through consortia and collaborations with academe [2]. + Corresponding author. Tel.: +639228531357; fax: +(045)982-0110. E-mail address: nelvin_nool2011@yahoo.com. 326 2012 International Conference on Education and Management Innovation IPEDR vol.30 (2012) © (2012) IACSIT Press, Singapore