Teacher Education Leader Francisco Rios: edTPA Leads Schools to Teach to the Test
Yesterday I began a series of interviews with leaders of schools of education. As I noted, these schools have been targeted by those seeking to "disrupt" and "reform" our educational system. Yesterday we met Kevin Kumashiro of the University of San Francisco. Today, we hear from Francisco Rios of Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Washington.
1. Can you tell me a bit about how your school approaches teacher education?
I am the Dean of the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University.
Our teacher education programs have a strong focus on issues of social justice, particularly connected to diversity, inclusion, and equity concerns. We add to this some essential understandings around teaching and learning. In addition, our programs have a strong focus on building a strong set of essential teaching skills mixed with a strong preparation in the academic disciplines, with a special emphasis on math and science. The program has a strong field based dimension, including early field experiences (via service learning) in schools, field experiences connected with methods courses, and nearly double the hours student teaching than are required for state certification.
2. How does this relate to how you expect the teachers your program graduates to engage in the work of teaching?
This is exactly how we would expect our teachers to engage in their work as teachers. We need them to have strong academic content knowledge mixed with strong pedagogical content knowledge. We need them to be strong teachers in as the essential dimensions of teaching and learning, from planning, to instruction, to curriculum, and to assessment. We need teachers who recognize that educational inequalities are the most pressing matters facing public education and Teacher Education Leader Francisco Rios: edTPA Leads Schools to Teach to the Test - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher