Urban superintendents want review of teacher-prep programs
The national network schools has endorsed a review of the nation's teaching programs, a feat that has been taken up by the National Council on Teacher Quality this year. The Council of Great City Schools represents more than 60 superintendents from large, urban cities, including Baltimore city schools CEO Andres Alonso.
The Council on Teacher Quality, which supported Baltimore's new teacher's union contract last fall, will review the nation's teacher preparation programs, but has met opposition from the higher education community. The results are due to be released in conjunction with U.S. News & World Report in late 2012.
Last month, NCTQ released a report which ranked a random sample of three institutions in each state, including Maryland. Mount St. Mary's University and Salisbury University received "weak" ratings and University of Maryland, Baltimore County a rating of "good." Mount St. Mary's and Salisbury disputed the report, which you can read more about in a story here.
The council spent two years working on the study, which looks at the student teaching experience at 134 institutions of higher education. The rating was based on factors that include whether the teachers who train the college students in their classrooms during student teaching are good teachers themselves, whether the teachers are selected in part by the school of education rather than a school's principal, and whether there is mentoring during the internship.
In its endorsement, the Council of Great City Schools likened the review to the same scrutiny that urban districts experience.
“Our governing body remains concerned that too many Colleges of Education are graduating students who are poorly prepared academically and not ready to provide quality instruction in our urban classrooms," said Mike Casserly, executive director of the council.
"We are frequently the subject of research, analysis, and study by a wide range of groups and organizations, and are puzzled by the opposition from the higher education community to the examination..."
Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ, said the endorsement validated the need for higher education institutions to learn the strengths and weaknesses in their programs.
"For years, district superintendents, particularly those leading districts that serve predominantly poor and minority children, have raised concerns about the uneven quality of the teacher preparation their new teachers received," Walsh said in the release. "The Council's endorsement of the national review shows that these superintendents believe that the time has come to shine a spotlight on what is working in teacher preparation and what needs to beimproved."
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Comments
I can't speak for all teacher education programs but I can speak for the ones with which I have had personal contact. My daughter was enrolled in a teacher education program in which her advisor had NO, repeat NO, experience in anything remotely resembling an urban, public school setting. I listened to several of the online discussions in her study group. The woman had absolutely no clue as to what the students were like in an urban setting. Her entire teaching experience was in private schools or at the college level. She got her position because of her degree--not her expertise in the field. I found the same thing to be true when I went through teacher training in the early 80's. I came to teaching after having worked in the "real world." I was what you would now call a career changer. The classes I had to take were, for the most part, geared toward theory and not practice. The little practice we did get was with a limited student body and did not deal with the problems that existed in the schools. I think that teacher education programs should employ people who have a minimum number of years in a "real" school and that those teachers should have to revisit schools on a regular basis. Education is one of the arenas in which actual classroom experience should be a mandatory requirement for those who prepare new educators.
Posted by: vetern teacher | August 18, 2011 7:59 AM
Over the years I have taken many, many graduate-level education classes at local colleges. Never have I had a professor/instructor who taught in an urban setting. Most of my classmates have been teachers in the counties. I always feel like the classes and the theories/techniques presented are not relevant to what I do in my classroom. When I relate my own experiences, the instructor and my classmates are shocked. Instead of being able to help me apply what I've learned in class, the reaction has usually been that of helplessness and pity along with suggestions that I "get out of there" and teach somewhere else. Teacher education programs must begin to address the reality of the urban classroom. In order to do so, they must have a curriculum and a faculty that is based upon, experienced in, urban education.
Posted by: avalon | August 21, 2011 7:49 AM