All eyes should be on Texas teacher preparation
Enhanced training needs to include better mentoring, mandatory tiered clinical experiences
EVERY day, we ask 330,000 Texas teachers to be responsible for preparing a diverse group of students and providing the pupils with an academic foundation that will allow them to be successful, productive adults.
During my more than three decades in public education, we often discussed how to best prepare teachers with the skills and knowledge to be successful.
Sadly, our current patchwork system of preparing teachers is not working well enough for aspiring teachers or school districts. Ultimately, our Texas students are paying the price.
Today, anyone who wants to teach in Texas has more than 200 choices of programs to become a certified teacher. Every fall, more than 27,000 new teachers enter Texas classrooms from these different teacher-preparation programs — 46 percent prepared by universities in colleges of education or post-baccalaureate programs and the other 54 percent by one of many alternative-certification programs.
As a state we get an “A” for access and lead the nation in the number of options to become a teacher. But when it comes to quality and transparency, it is a different story.
We hear from principals and school leaders that newly minted teachers often aren’t prepared and haven’t spent enough time in classrooms training face-to-face with students. Some teachers never get an opportunity to student-teach, and their first encounter with students happens after they’ve been hired and placed in a school.
Adding to this dilemma is that new teachers are often assigned to the most academically challenging situations and receive minimal mentorship throughout their teaching.
Recent surveys show that new teachers crave better training so they can enter classrooms confident and better equipped to lead, teach and inspire. And happier, more successful teachers are more likely to stay in the classroom longer, thus reducing our significant retention issues. What can we do about these challenges? In early 2016, Educate Texas, a nonprofit public-private partnership of the Communities Foundation of Texas, convened the Texas Teacher Preparation Collaborative that focused on improving the preparation, training and support of new teachers in Texas. This diverse and dedicated group included veteran educators of all stripes, including current Texas teachers and principals, deans of colleges of education, and heads of alternative-certification programs.
Over the past year, our group spent hundreds of hours examining national and local best practices for school districts and teacher-preparation programs as well as the policies of our state agencies and the Texas Legislature. We recently issued a report — one of the most comprehensive studies conducted in Texas on teacher preparation — with recommendations on how we can do better. It includes ideas like stronger partnerships between school districts and teacher-preparation programs; better mentoring and mandatory, tiered
“The dialogue about improving teacher training is not a new one, nor is it one that we should ever stop having because education is ever evolving and needs constant evaluation.”
clinical experiences (like beginning doctors have); improved curriculum for training teachers; and better, more transparent data systems for educators and the public so we know how well or poorly new teachers are being trained.
The State Board for Educator Certification recently strengthened rules related to preparation, a move we applaud.
We also believe all preparation entities should maintain ongoing face-to-face interaction with new teachers during their first years of practice and that data should be more readily available so that programs can make improvements. That is not too much to ask given the important work of teachers. Our future as a state and nation is literally in their hands. Improving teaching excellence is critical.
The recommendations of the Collaborative report are timely, given the growing needs of school districts, the statewide policy debate occurring during the 85th legislative session and the proposed regulatory changes at the Texas Education Agency and the State Board of Education.
We know, that as the legislative session continues, some might oppose higher standards for new teachers and teacher-preparation programs.
But we must ask ourselves: Are we actually preparing teachers to teach the students they will meet in their classrooms? Or, are we just hoping it will be enough?
The dialogue about improving teacher training is not a new one, nor is it one that we should ever stop having because education is ever evolving and needs constant evaluation. The recommendations outlined in the Collaborative’s report provide a pathway toward significant improvement. We urge you to reach out to your legislators and talk to your school district leadership in support of these recommendations. Texas children cannot wait.