NCTQ Releases 2013 Teacher Prep Review Report

posted by: Ruthie | June 18, 2013, 05:57 PM

With the teaching profession growing and evolving, one theme that remains constant is the fact that effective teachers are the key to student success. However, teachers can only be as good as the instruction they receive. Therefore, in order to bring our colleges of education into a new era of success, AAE is pleased to be signing on in support of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) new 2013 Teacher Prep Review Report.

AAE is proud to support this unprecedented evaluation of more than 1,100 colleges and universities that prepare elementary and secondary teachers. As a consumer tool, it ranks schools and allows aspiring teachers, parents and school districts to compare programs and determine which are doing the best -- and worst -- job of training new teachers.

Many students do not have access to a quality education, a problem due largely in part to how we currently train of educators. According to analysis by NCTQ and US News & World Report, the majority of teacher preparation programs in the United States are not providing adequate training to aspiring teachers, leaving them unable to accommodate increasingly rigorous instructional goals of public schools.

"New teachers deserve training that will enable them to walk into their own classroom on their first day ready to teach, but our Review shows that we have a long way to go," said Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ. "While we know a lot about how to train teachers, those practices are seldom evident in the vast majority of programs.

Along with findings concerning America's schools of education, the report also suggests a list of viable strategies for public officials to remedy the disparity in high quality teacher education and the current state of teacher instruction.

According to the AAE National Member Survey, teachers are in support of more rigorous standards for entering the teaching profession. Sixty-two percent of respondents agree with the idea that, just as lawyers must pass state bar exams to practice law, teachers should pass a test that measures their potential to be effective. In order to prove their excellence on tests and in the classroom, teachers need the opportunity to receive high quality instruction in their field. We hope this new report will serve as a critical first step in reforming teacher preparation programs for the 21st century.

What do you think of the quality of teacher preparation programs?
Comment below.

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