The Carnegie Corporation of New York has added its voice--and some serious dollars--to the chorus of groups calling for reform of teacher education. In a paper released in September, "Teaching as a Clinical Profession: A New Challenge for Education," the philanthropic foundation recommends that teacher preparation programs be modeled more along the lines of medical training programs, with an emphasis on clinical experience and in-school residencies.

The paper is intended to provoke broader discussion about a $40 million initiative the foundation announced in April, called "Teachers for a New Era." The goal of the initiative is to create a change in the public's thinking about how we train and support the kind of teachers public schools and society need. Over the next two years, Carnegie will identify as many as eight schools that it will support through a transformation into what the initiative calls "schools of modern clinical practice." The transformation will come about through the application of research and recommendations advanced by a variety of education reform groups--including the AFT--over the past decade. Thus far, Carnegie has announced that four institutions already are on board: the University of California at Northridge, Bank Street College of Education, Michigan State University and the University of Virginia.

In its paper, the foundation notes that a consensus has formed about the central role of teaching in improving education in the United States. It quotes Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation: "My bookshelves are sagging under studies that say the quality of teaching is the most important variable affecting student achievement. This isn't controversial...."

What is more, the paper says, enough recent reports have shown widespread agreement on what needs to take place in colleges and schools of education to make a difference in teacher quality. The first report it cites in a footnote is the AFT publication, Building a Profession: Strengthening Teacher Preparation and Induction, which was released in 2000.  Among the reforms Carnegies seeks to support--and which the AFT has called for--are the following.

The university's president and administration needs to buy in to raising the status and resources for the school of education. Faculty in the arts and sciences need to be more involved in contributing to the preparation of teachers. The institutions have to put resources into creating better and more interactions with teachers, schools and districts. The profession needs to better define what teachers need to know and be able to do when they go to work in a classroom. And new teachers need to benefit from better-designed clinical experiences, induction programs and ongoing mentoring.

What has been lacking in the thinking on teacher ed reform, the report claims, is "an overall vision that links teacher education with strengthening the profession." This vision Carnegie hopes to provide with its reference point to medical training and ongoing professional development--a link that long-time AFT members will recall the late AFT president Albert Shanker made in 1990 when he was engaging the union in discussions about teacher training.

Read the Carnegie report, Teaching as a Clinical Profession: A New Challenge for Education (pdf). See the AFT report, Building a Profession: Strengthening Teacher Preparation and Induction. (pdf)   [Barbara McKenna]

[September 25, 2002]