Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers

Greenberg, J. and Jacobs, S. (2009). Preparing Tomorrow’s Teacher’s. National Council on Teacher Quality.

This article came about because administrators in Wyoming were concerned that the new wave of entering teachers were not as qualified to teach reading and math to their students. The thought of this is a little scary. If teachers are not prepared to do the job that they were hired for the students’ and their test score will be greatly affected. And in this time of NCLB where test scores are extremely important the council decided to investigate how the university were preparing their teachers. The programs that were used in the study produce over 70% of the nation’s teachers. “It found that the University of Wyoming College of Education: (1) does not screen applicants to ensure that teacher candidates are academically proficient; (2) does not prepare candidates to teach the science of reading. Coursework only includes exposure to two of the five components of effective reading instruction. Further, although the program uses better textbooks than is common throughout the country, the texts do not cover all of the components; (3) has improved its mathematic s preparation program since we rated it in our national study (June 2008) and now satisfactorily provides the mathematic s content preparation that elementary teachers need, although textbooks could still be improved; and (4) does not ensure that aspiring elementary teachers know the science of reading instruction and understand elementary mathematics content at a depth that is sufficient for instruction.” In the end the council only could give recommendations for what to do to improve teacher education programs but was unable to actually implement anything and left it up to the Professional Teaching Standards Board to establish any changes.