U.S. teachers: out off the Bermuda triangle

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3 augustus 2012 | The biggest American Teachers’ Association (AAE) pledges to reform teacher training programmes. Following the advice of the national quality council, the teachers themselves now want to bring their profession into a new era of success.

Unlike other professional schools, teacher preparation programsare held to inconsistent and often weak standards, enablingineffective programs to receive state approval and nationalaccreditation, states the Association of American Educators, AAE. As a result too fewteachers receiving the knowledge and skills they need to besuccessful in the classroom.

Higher education teacher preparation programs prepare nearly 90%of the 240,000 new teachers who are hired each year.

In a speechat Virginia University, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan putit like this: “In all but a few states, education schools act asthe Bermuda Triangle of higher education-students sail in but noone knows what happens to them after they come out. No one knowswhich students are succeeding as teachers, which are struggling,and what training was useful or not.”

Towards more student success

With the teaching profession growing and evolving, one themethat remains constant is the fact that effective teachers are thekey to student success. Studies have shown that educationschools are deeply in need of reform. From attracting top highschool graduates, to improving the quality of instruction,institutions that prepare future teachers must be able to produceresults. In order to bring our colleges of education into a new eraof success, AAE now joins the list of endorsers of the National Council on TeacherQuality’s (NCTQ) project to rank colleges of education inan effort to better prepare future educators.

The AAE members agree that the US teacher preparation systemneeds to be reformed. In addition to supporting alternativecertification programs for degreed professionals and intensetraining programs like Teach For America, AAE members are eager tosee changes in how our new teachers are trained.