Lincoln (Neb.) - Oct. 25, 1999 - The American Council on Education's Presidential Task Force on Teacher Education released a report today titled "To Touch the Future - Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught" addressed to institutions with teacher education programs. The report's message was essentially to shape up those programs or get out of the business.
The 36-member Task Force, which included University of Nebraska President L. Dennis Smith, recommended that campus chief executives take seven specific actions: take the lead in moving teacher education higher on the agenda; clarify the connection between the education of teachers and the mission of the institution; mandate campuswide reviews of quality; work with governing boards to commission rigorous, independent appraisals of the quality of the institution's teacher education programs; require that faculty and courses be coordinated with arts and sciences faculty and courses; ensure that teacher education programs have the equipment, facilities and personnel to educate future teachers in the use of technology; and ensure that graduates of teacher education programs are supported, monitored and mentored.
"I suspect that we will be able to endorse the report fully, from what I have read," said James O'Hanlon, dean of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Teachers College, which has already addressed the major reforms called for in the report. O'Hanlon provided these examples:
- Teachers College has selective admissions processes that ensure that only highly qualified students who are dedicated to teaching are admitted to the program.
- Up to five semesters of practicum experiences in schools provide teacher education students experience with a wide range of progressively increasing responsibilities. Teachers in K-12 schools play a major role in designing these experiences.
- Increased emphasis on content for those preparing to be elementary education teachers. For example, Teachers College students take three math courses which have been specially designed by the UNL math department for elementary education teachers. In most universities, elementary education students take only one math course.
- Students preparing to be secondary teachers complete majors in the fields that they will teach, with as many or more credit hours than comparable majors in the College of Arts and Sciences. Arts and Sciences faculty have been recently involved in redesigning these majors.
- Teacher education students are provided both course work and practicum experiences to prepare them to work effectively with the great diversity of students they will teach in the schools after graduation.
- Outside evaluations have praised the high level of support which K-12 schools in the state provide for UNL's teacher education program.
- Outside evaluations have validated the ratings which Teachers College gives its student teachers, which are the final evaluations of their qualifications to be teachers.
- Through its "Compact with Nebraska," Teachers College is working on a method to identify how well K-12 students are taught by its graduates. Teachers College is the first teacher education program in the country to commit to producing such evidence.
"The report also mentions the importance of adequate support for technology and we feel we clearly have that because our graduates meet the International Society for Technology and Education standards," O'Hanlon said.
UNL Chancellor James Moeser praised the Teachers College programs. "I welcome the Task Force report. I think it says exactly what needs to be said because, frankly, there are some institutions that need to 'shape up or ship out' with regard to teacher training," Moeser said. "Without sounding arrogant about it, I really think the University of Nebraska-Lincoln sets the mark for what a university needs to do. I would give our teacher education program an A-minus - and the minus is only because I'm a tough grader and I always want to leave room for improvement.
"We shine in two areas. One is in the integration of content from Arts and Sciences with pedagogy, what goes on in Teachers College. The model here is our nationally recognized math-science education program. The other is in the Compact with Nebraska, a statement that we constantly listen to schools to make sure that the teachers we send them are properly prepared."
A good measure of that, O'Hanlon said, is whether the schools are happy with the teachers they hire from Nebraska.
"The kind of comment that we get from principals is the first-year teachers from Nebraska are more like second- and third- year teachers than first-year teachers when they hire them," he said. "One of the strengths of our program is the intensive practicum experiences that our students have in the schools. When a student graduates from our program, he or she has had a lot of practical experience in the classroom and starts as a strong first-year teacher."
In addition to the quality of teachers, the Task Force report also addressed the growing problem of teacher numbers. It said a teacher shortage of an estimated 2.5 million teachers looms in the next decade, up some 20 percent over normal replacement levels.
Again, Teachers College has taken steps to address that situation, including the recent introduction of the Accelerated Post-baccalaureate Certification Program, in which a person with a bachelor's degree in English, mathematics, modern foreign languages or one of the sciences can qualify for Nebraska teacher certification in as little as 11 months.
The report says the shortage "presents not only a challenge but an opportunity." O'Hanlon agreed, saying it's an opportunity to use market forces to address the problems of teacher quality and teacher shortage.
"We must realize that we will continue to have teacher
shortages and unqualified teachers teaching unless we come up
with incentives - including higher salaries - and better support
for teachers in the field," he said. "We are a marketplace
society and incentives work to attract quality performers. In all
previous cases in this century when there was a teacher shortage
the response has been to lower standards for persons to become
teachers. Never have we tried to raise incentives as is done in
other fields. Over the past two decades teacher education
programs have worked diligently to increase standards. We can't
let them be eroded now."
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