Teacher Education Programs Featured in What Matters Most
Bank Street College of Education
The Graduate School at Bank Street College of Education is dedicated to preparing individuals to become outstanding educators and leaders in schools, museums, and other educational settings. Based in a tradition of progressive education, the graduate programs are designed to help educators find ways to make learning vital, active, and creative for children from diverse backgrounds who come to the classroom with a broad range of learning styles. Bank Street's master's degree programs lead to New York State certification and provide graduates with a thorough, rigorous, humanistic foundation for their careers in education. Each of Bank Street's programs is characterized by small classes, a year of supervised fieldwork/advisement, and a faculty dedicated both to research and to classroom practice.
California Mathematics and Science Teacher Corps at California State University, Dominguez Hills
Created with help from businesses that provided stipends for retiring employees to prepare to teach (IBM, TRW, McDonnell-Douglas, and Hughes were among the first companies to participate), this program provides training and credentials to retired and laid-off aerospace workers interested in becoming elementary or secondary mathematics and science teachers. Students progress through the program in a peer cohort and receive specialized assessment and training based on their advanced knowledge and experience in the field. The program now receives its primary financial support from private industry councils in the Dominguez Hills service area. During their year in the program, candidates observe, tutor, and student teach in schools while taking courses in teaching methods, motivation, learning, classroom management, and multicultural perspectives. Graduates affirm that the training has been essential to their later success.
The Cincinnati Initiative for Teacher Education (CITE)
CITE is a five-year preservice teacher education program designed to graduate fully qualified teachers capable of delivering instruction to diverse student populations in a variety of settings. A collaborative effort between the school district and the University of Cincinnati, the College of Education supports the program with the educational and professional studies component, the College of Arts and Sciences provides subject-matter education in the academic disciplines, and practicing teachers in the schools serve as mentors and models. Upon completion, teachers receive a bachelor's degree in their discipline as well as a degree in education. A full-year internship during the fifth year combines half-time teaching responsibility with coordinated seminars under the joint supervision of campus-based and school-based faculty. Professional practice schools provide settings for students' field and internship placements, where they conduct observations, fieldwork, and tutoring in professional teams with other teachers, school-based university faculty, and fellow interns, who usually number six or eight to a building.
Developing Effective Leaders in Teaching at Arlington (DELTA) Secondary Teacher Education Program at George Washington University, Washington, DC
Since 1985, George Washington University's DELTA (formerly Crystal City) Secondary Teacher Education Program has been preparing retired military personnel, federal workers, managers, and technical experts from corporate settings who are seeking a career change to teaching. Originally limited to the content areas of science and mathematics, the self-paced program now serves secondary English, social studies, foreign language, art, and English as a second language. In addition to preparing graduates for licensure throughout the Washington, DC metro area, the program meets the licensure standards for most of the other states across the country. Program participants tend to be highly skilled individuals trained for various technological and specialized jobs. Delta is a technology-driven program that is fulfilling the critical need for greater numbers of highly qualified secondary school teachers.
Project Promise, Colorado State University
Project Promise is an innovative, accelerated approach to preparing post-baccalaureate, mid-career candidates to become secondary public school teachers. Founded in 1988, the program prepares teachers who are sought after by many school districts in Colorado. The program received the Program of Excellence Award from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and has been featured in Business Week Magazine and quoted in U.S. News and World Report. In the Project Promise model, students receive instruction during a full-day schedule over ten months. The periods of instruction are immediately followed by extended field experiences in the particular contexts for which students were prepared. The approach is developmental in nature and ensures application of theory in authentic practice. Students are required to demonstrate proficiency through work samples during the five field experiences:
- rural;
- junior high/middle school;
- urban;
- senior high; and
- service learning.
Founded on the belief that public education in the U.S. will not be world class until universities develop world-class models of teacher training, Project Promise began recruiting prospective teachers from fields as diverse as law, geology, chemistry, stock trading, and medicine. The ten-month program emphasizes problem solving, cultural awareness, and student needs as well as subject matter and pedagogical preparation. Candidates cycle through four or five intensively supervised nine-week teaching practica in very different settings and take part in regular peer coaching. Evaluation is based on demonstrated performance rather than credit hours or seat time. Graduates work with faculty mentors in their first and second years of teaching, bridging the gap between preparation and induction. Project Promise has received funding to conduct research, follow up with its graduates, and provide assistance to other public institutions seeking to implement a similar model.
Professional Development Schools Partnership, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
- A Partnership of Teachers College, Community School District 3, the Alternative High School Division, and the United Federation of Teachers (New York City teachers' union)
In 1988, PS 87, a 1100-student K-5 elementary school, and MS 44, a 1500-student middle school, joined forces with Teachers College, Columbia University in an urban professional development school (PDS) partnership designed to support the learning of preservice student teachers, the induction of beginning teachers, and the ongoing growth of experienced teachers while simultaneously restructuring schools and schools of education. This collaboration has since expanded to include PS 165, PS 207, and the Beacon High School [as of 1996]. Some features of the school-university partnership include a one-year internship program for preservice teachers; a school-based seminar, co-taught by PDS teachers and university faculty, focused on curriculum, materials, and classroom management; extensive action research; and a course in supervision for PS 87 cooperating teachers who have interns and student teachers in their classrooms. Central to the partnership work is a fundamental concern for students' learning and development, with a specific focus on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Since replacing its traditional, four-year education major with five years of preparation nearly ten years ago, Trinity's program integrates more arts and sciences courses with educational course work to ensure solid disciplinary grounding and attention to content pedagogy. Students receive a bachelor's degree in their academic discipline before completing a Master of Arts in Teaching. The program also adds a full-year teaching internship for student teachers, which takes place in professional development schools where expert, veteran teachers join with university faculty to provide a supportive, realistic initial teaching experience. Teachers who serve as mentors to student teachers receive an extra planning period each day to work with the beginners and to collaborate with college faculty in designing new curriculum and restructuring school practices. Outcomes of Trinity's program have been impressive. Candidates rate the program extremely highly, as do employers. Graduates are eagerly sought out, and 100% are placed in teaching positions, most in San Antonio. As a group, they are extraordinarily successful, winning numerous awards for their teaching from their very first years in the classroom. "In terms of recruiting, training, and renewing teachers, Trinity is one of the most impressive efforts in the nation," observed Ernest Boyer, the late president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
|
