CSUN University News Clippings

Overhaul in teacher prep called essential

(October 22, 2009)

By Libby Quaid
Published: 10/21/2009

The Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of college programs that prepare teachers, saying they are cash cows that do a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the classroom.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a speech prepared for delivery today called for “revolutionary change” in these programs, which prepare at least 80 percent of the nation’s teachers.The teachers he’s talked to have two complaints about education schools, he said.

“First, most of them say they did not get the hands-on teacher training about managing the classroom that they needed, especially for high-needs students,” he said in the speech to Columbia University’s Teachers College.

“And second, they say they were not taught how to use data to improve instruction and boost student learning,” Duncan said.

Education schools’ large enrollment and low overhead makes education schools cash cows for their universities, Duncan said. But their profits have been diverted to smaller, more prestigious graduate departments such as physics and have not been spent on research and training for would-be teachers, he said.

The government is also to blame, he said. Most states have paper-and-pencil licensing exams that measure basic skills and knowledge but not readiness for the classroom, he said, and local mentoring programs are lacking.

The Long Beach Unified School District has excellent teacher training through its collaboration with Cal State Long Beach, said district spokesman Chris Eftychiou. The Obama Administration has praised the district’s use of student performance data to improve instruction, he added.

“Our teacher training also is widely recognized as a model of how a school district should collaborate with higher education, in our case Cal State Long Beach, to prepare teachers for the realities of the urban classroom,” Eftychiou said.

Staff Writer Kevin Butler contributed to this article.

Publication: Associated Press