Student Teacher…Quality?

Today, the National Council on Student Teacher Quality issued a study reporting the flaws and shortcomings of educational schools’ student-teaching programs. The New York Times reports highlights here that reveal both poor results of training programs and the reactions from education schools.

“Student Teaching in the United States” examined 134 student teaching programs across the nation, and found that 75 percent of schools did not meet the five basic standards designed for evaluating high quality education schools. While the Times did not share the five standards, they do share Council President Kate Walsh’s comments on the lack of standards in evaluating education schools. Currently, basic accrediting bodies do not even standardize the length of time a student teacher needs to serve in the classroom. Lack of selection control over cooperative teachers also proved to bring negative scores for education schools.

Many institutions have reached out to the US News Report complaining of the council’s methods as these evaluations will contribute to the education schools’ grades of A-F to be reported.

Graduation from an educational school is supposed to bring accountability and credibility for those traditionally trained as teachers. What does this mean for Baltimore City? Education schools and their student teacher programs should be evaluated, but if we cannot agree upon assessment tactics, it undermines the idea of even trying to assess teacher quality. What makes a quality-student teaching experience and how can it be ensured and standardized? While the report appears to be heavily criticized, it does raise the important question of how we are ensuring that quality teachers are here for our kids and their education.