The Business of Teacher Training

Finally, some decent reporting on the DOE's proposal for changing teacher qualifications--why the Indy Star can't see beyond the political BS & double-talk is beyond me.....
Key Points:

• Bennett's proposal markedly lowers standards in content for teachers (regardless of what he says);
• Bennett's proposal would hurt all of the teacher preparation programs in Indiana (even private programs like Butler and Marion);
• Bennett's proposal would allow taking a test to substitute for license renewal & becoming an administrator (so much for professionalism and life-long learners, eh?);
• Bennett hates Schools of Education.....what's he afraid of??  Folks that have dedicated their lives to studying what works in education?  or is he just afraid of real data?
• Bennett's proposal is gambling with Indiana's children as there is no data that suggests these programs will work (the story here is about one teacher....how many don't make it a year?)
• and finally, you might not read about in the Star but there's been a lot of improvement in Indiana, why such radical reform?  It makes you wonder that this about something else.... passing the costs on to someone else?  deregulation? privatization? Sounds like Mitch, hmm?

Overhaul of teacher training threatens college budgets

J.K. Wall

October 3, 2009

KEYWORDS

EDUCATION & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, GOVERNMENT & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, K-12, STATE GOVERNMENT, TEACHERS

...A survey by the Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education found that secondary education majors take as many or more courses in English, biology, chemistry, U.S. history and Spanish than their peers majoring in those subjects.  “This isn’t a race to the top in these rules; it’s a race to the bottom,” said Ena Shelley, dean of Butler’s College of Education.

Education deans also fault Bennett’s rules for moving back to an old model of strict credit-hour requirements, undercutting 10 years of efforts to tie teacher-training to specific standards, measured by tests taken by teachers and by students.  That was the goal of the current rule system for teacher licensing, called Rules 2002. And some credit the system with the general improvement in Indiana students’ scores on the ISTEP and SAT tests.

“Indiana has gotten better, not worse, since 2002,” said John Jacobson, dean of the Ball State University Teachers College. “That’s an indicator that maybe the standards-based system is working.” ....

Read More: http://www.ibj.com/educators-divided/PARAMS/article/7378