National Council on Teacher Quality Releases Report on Student Teaching

posted by: Alix | July 21, 2011, 06:44 PM

Today, the National Council on Teacher Quality released a comprehensive study on schools of education and their various student teaching programs. The report, "Student Teaching in the United States," examines student-teaching practices in 134 colleges of education, or about 10% of all nationwide programs. All but 25% were considered "weak" or "poor" under NCTQ's rating system, raising questions about the survey's methods, but also overarching concerns over how effective American colleges of education are in preparing our next generation of educators.

Among the conclusions of the study, the average student-teaching experience couples little supervision with a lack of supportive and effective mentor-teachers. Essentially, while a student may be spending time in the classroom, they are not monitored properly and are not always being supervised by an elite teacher, according to the findings. With little guidance, their time in the classroom can be rendered meaningless.

Further complicating the findings, the council contends that these programs are not accounting for the needs of schools, but are instead preparing too many elementary-level teachers at a rate more than double needed nationally. This both floods the job market upon graduation, but also taxes the partner school districts' ability to provide quality student-teacher training.

"Ed. schools are begging schools to take these student-teachers," said Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ. "It tells you a lot about the state of teacher education that we find it acceptable that student-teachers don't have to meet a measure of quality, nor do the people who train them."

The study comes on the heels of a nationwide call by education experts and the Obama administration to examine and perhaps overhaul how we are cultivating our future teacher workforce. With declining scores in international rankings, policymakers assert that a push toward remaking student-teaching in the mold of a medical residency with much lengthier and more rigorous standards could make an astronomical difference in the quality of teachers colleges of education are churning out.

With the dialogue expanding and the release of NCTQ's report, colleges of education, burned by the findings, are disputing the validity of the data amassed by the advocacy group. Naysayers are charging that NCTQ put too much weight on written public documents and did not make the system used for grading these schools available to the public.

Colleges of education adversely affected by the ranking are further outraged by NCTQ's new partnership with U.S. News and World Report who, together, will release a list of rankings for colleges of education. Similar to the prestigious undergraduate university list, the rankings are scheduled for release next February.

While questions regarding methodology are sure to arise, clearly with half of our educators retiring in the next ten years, our colleges of education need to rise to the occasion and reevaluate their programs to meet the challenges of today. While preparing our best and brightest for a career in teaching is challenging, study after study shows that a high quality teacher in front of a classroom is the determining factor in student success. Our future teachers need programs that will train them properly and effectively.

Do you think colleges of education need to reevaluate their student teaching programs?
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