Teaching the teachers
Point Park’s new school will fill a need
Point Park University’s recent decision to open a new School of Education could improve Pittsburgh’s already impressive set of higher ed offerings, while also helping the state solve a critical issue.
It is no secret that the quantity and quality of higher education choices in the Pittsburgh area have done much for the city in recent years. Many analysts have credited Pittsburgh’s “eds and meds” with driving much of the area economy.
But while schools like Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have enjoyed much of the credit for this success, more accessible schools like Point Park have played an invaluable role bolstering the quality of education in the city. Having survived a crisis in the mid-1990s that almost shuttered the school, Point Park has since emerged as a vibrant and important Pittsburgh institution, offering a high-quality education to more than 3,000 students.
Point Park’s new School of Education not only will elevate the university’s status within the city even further, but it will also help solve a looming issue in Pennsylvania education: a shortage of teachers.
Estimates from the U.S. Department of Education and the Pennsylvania State Education Association indicate that a dramatic wave of retirements could lead to a dearth of educators in the state. Finding young people who want to become teachers is essential and Point Park could be launching its new program at just the right moment. The university’s administrators say the decision to open its new education school was due to demand.
But it will be vital that Point Park not simply churn out jargon-heavy, technically minded teachers. This is, unfortunately, the way many U.S. programs have prepared teachers lately. A 2018 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that most teacher education programs do not provide an extensive student-teaching component, for example.
Good teachers cannot be mechanically produced simply by reading and writing about educational theory. High-quality teachers hone their skills in the classroom, working with students. The University of Pittsburgh requires that graduatelevel students pursuing a teaching certificate have year-long internships in a local school district. Point Park would be wise to follow its lead.
Point Park has a chance to play an important role both in accentuating Pittsburgh’s status as a hub for top-tier learning and in helping Pennsylvania alleviate an impending educational crisis. But it must not become a “teacher factory.” Rather, it should strive to a develop a new generation of thoughtful, passionate, and skilled educators.