Disservice to Pre-service Teaching
I recently read in the Washington Post that the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education issued a report recommending that students preparing for a career in teaching should spend less time in course work and more time in real classrooms for clinical practice. According to the article, the report states that this would be more in the model used for medical Doctors. The report advocates less coursework and more practical experience for pre-service teachers. Of course the overriding theme of this article implies that the failure of our system is with the failure of the teachers, so it must be the failure of the way that teachers are prepared.
I see an additional problem in that the report in the recommendation for evaluating the student teacher on the performance of their assigned students on standardized tests.
“All programs held to same standards; data-driven accountability based on measures of candidate performance and student achievement, including gains in standardized test scores. Data drives reform and continuous improvement.”
This however, will require the attention of a second Post at another time.
Before any committee recommends less time in course work and expanding time in the classroom experience