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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News

The alternative track to teaching makes sense

Are colleges of education too theoretical? Not prepping students sufficiently for the classroom?
That's the subject of discussion in a number of circles as groups like Teach for America and The New Teacher Project supply more and more instructors outside of the traditional education school route.

New York has something like 800 Teach for America grads, Baltimore has about 240 and here in Dallas, the school district has 70 Teach for America instructors.
The advantage of the alternative track model is that these groups intensely screen their numerous applicants and put the ones they do select through rigorous pre-classroom training. You may not call it a boot camp, but it's close.
I had a chance to see Teach for America in action at Marsh Middle School a couple of weeks back. I taught social studies students in Teach for America graduate Miguel Solis' eighth grade class at Marsh, a rare