How well are America’s teachers prepared? Are future teachers ready for the first day of school? What is the evidence and should colleges of education and other training programs be held accountable?
EWA’s two day-event Oct. 23-24 at Northwestern University’s Chicago campus will examine the teacher pipeline, with a focus on how states can build a better route that attracts the best candidates, the extent to which states are — or aren't — taking adequate steps to ensure high quality preparation programs, and look more broadly at best practices to make sure new teachers are ready for Day One in the classroom.
The event comes at a time when concerns about the state of teacher education have been getting significant attention. For example, in July 2015, the GAO issued a report concluding that teacher preparation programs in some states lack performance data and that those states do not have a process to determine whether programs are low-performing.
The conference will offer a mix of hands-on and immersive programming, along with presentations by high-profile speakers in the areas of teacher preparation and development.
How well are America’s teachers prepared? Are future teachers ready for the first day of school? What is the evidence and should colleges of education and other training programs be held accountable?
EWA’s two day-event Oct. 23-24 at Northwestern University’s Chicago campus will examine the teacher pipeline, with a focus on how states can build a better route that attracts the best candidates, the extent to which states are — or aren’t — taking adequate steps to ensure high quality preparation programs, and look more broadly at best practices to make sure new teachers are ready for Day One in the classroom.
The event comes at a time when concerns about the state of teacher education have been getting significant attention. For example, in July 2015, the GAO issued a report concluding that teacher preparation programs in some states lack performance data and that those states do not have a process to determine whether programs are low-performing.
The conference will offer a mix of hands-on and immersive programming, along with presentations by high-profile speakers in the areas of teacher preparation and development.
Ensuring High-Quality Teacher Talent
Education First
As districts face the recurring problem of ensuring every student has access to a high-quality teacher, a growing number have begun to proactively form deep, mutually beneficial partnerships with teacher preparation programs to produce teacher candidates who match their specific needs. These partnerships, when done well, take significant time and resources on behalf of both parties, but have the ability to transform the work of both institutions.
Holding States Accountable for Teacher Quality
Demands for accountability have finally arrived at the doorsteps of teacher colleges. Helping to spur the change are a controversial Government Accountability Office report on teacher-preparation programs released over the summer, and forthcoming federal regulations intended to hold them accountable for how graduates perform in the classroom.
Have Warnings of Teacher ‘Shortages’ Been Exaggerated?
Predicting teacher “shortages,” evidently, is much like forecasting the apocalypse. It’s best to go into the enterprise with a flexible time frame.
“There was always a ‘shortage’ of 2 million teachers, and it loomed a year or two ahead. It seemed to keep getting pushed further and further back,” said Steve Drummond, the senior education editor at NPR News, who has heard diagnoses of a shortage since the 1990s.
Forging New Paths to Teaching
Alternative routes to teacher certification have grown rapidly over the last three decades, with more programs popping up all over the country. At EWA’s recent seminar in Chicago, three leaders in the field of teacher preparation discussed the implications this widening path will have on traditional teachers’ colleges and what lessons they might glean from their newer counterparts.
Agenda: Ready for Day 1? Covering the Education of Teachers
Seminar on Teacher Education
This is a preliminary agenda and is subject to change. Check back for any updates. (Updated Oct. 24)
Friday, October 23
Site Visit
8:15–11:45 a.m.
Participants meet with leaders, faculty, and students at the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program, a highly regarded two-year program that leads to a master’s degree. The university also provides supports to graduates for another three years, and finds that 90 percent remain in the classroom for at least five years.
Spotlighting “Solutions” on the Education Beat
EWA Radio: Episode 43
“Solutions Journalism” aims to draw attention to credible responses to social problems. A brand-new resource can help education reporters take that approach with their own work on the beat.
Can a Charter School Grow Its Own Teachers?
EWA Radio: Episode 41
The Noble Street Network of Charter Schools in Chicago is taking a radical in-house approach to teacher preparation, recruiting and training its own recent graduates for spots at the front of the classroom.
Reporter Becky Vevea of WBEZ Chicago followed new teacher Jose Garcia through his first year at Noble’s Rauner College Prep, while he was also completing coursework through the Relay Graduate School of Education.