Experts: How to overhaul teacher ed (and my problem with their report)
A big report by a panel of national experts was released Tuesday that calls for overhauling the way teachers are educated in the United States. It says that teacher ed programs should be less academic and based more on classroom experience in the model used by the medical profession. The report, titled “Transforming Teacher Education Through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers,” makes a number of smart, common-sense recommendations for improving teacher education programs: *Admissions and graduation standards for would-be teachers should be strengthened. *Accreditation for teacher education programs should be made tougher to weed out weak programs. *Student education programs should model themselves on medical training programs that rely heavily on clinical training. *Colleges and universities training teachers should work in partnership with school districts and states to change policy that promotes better teacher education. *Higher education institutions and school districts should work together to design
