AFT's teacher prep report sparks nationwide response

Some reports make a beeline from the office inbox to the shelf with little more than a passing glance from readers. That's definitely not the case with the AFT's report Building a Profession: Strengthening Teacher Preparation and Induction.

Released last spring, Building a Profession has struck a nerve with the education community and sparked follow-up activities at every level, as professionals in both the K-12 and higher education communities rally around many of the report's commonsense suggestions for keeping quality in the teaching ranks. The publication also has captured the attention of both the national media and decision-makers at the highest levels, including President Clinton.

"I want to thank you and the leadership of the American Federation of Teachers for calling for more rigorous preparation of, and standards for, public school teachers," Clinton wrote AFT president Sandra Feldman a few days after the report's release. "The AFT has a proud history of striving for excellence in education, and with your recent report, you have once again helped to move the national conversation forward on strengthening teacher quality and educational opportunities in our public schools."

Developed by the union's K-16 teacher education task force and released last spring, Building a Profession calls for higher standards for entry into teacher education programs, requiring an academic undergraduate major, a national test at the sophomore year and upon graduation, a fifth year for expanded clinical training, and improved first-year mentoring programs. Those were among the major recommendations that delegates to the 2000 AFT national convention made official union policy in a resolution they adopted this summer on teacher education and teacher quality.

"If we enhance teacher education programs and raise requirements for new teachers now, we will be able to make dramatic improvements in the effectiveness of teachers and in student performance for years to come," explained AFT president Sandra Feldman.

The clinical key

Strengthening the student teaching experience for those looking to enter the profession is essential to improving traditional teacher preparation programs, the AFT report points out. Surveys of student teachers and experienced classroom teachers, it says, indicate that the clinical experience is often considered the most important aspect of teacher education.

Teaching candidates benefit from observing the diverse teaching styles demonstrated by excellent teachers in a variety of settings, notes the report, which recommends identifying and training "cooperating classroom teachers" with whom prospective teachers would be placed. "Spending an extended period of time in a well-run program, under the tutelage of a master teacher, would give young teachers an experience similar to the one that physicians get from an internship," Feldman says.

Cooperating teachers would be chosen on the basis of their proven excellence. They should also "be adequately trained to assume this responsibility, and well rewarded for undertaking it," the task force report states.

Task force co-chair and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) vice president Antonia Cortese says the state federation talked with the New York department of education about the establishment of criteria for identifying cooperating teachers. NYSUT is also working with leaders of its higher education affiliates to determine what should be the standards for becoming a cooperating teacher, she says.

"Right now, there are no standards for deciding who should be a cooperating teacher," notes Cortese. "We need to find a way to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of those professionals already working in the classroom."

Cooperating teachers, she adds, should be compensated. "It's important that we have incentives for those we'd like to see become cooperating teachers."

Reaching out

Interest in the report extends well beyond the union. The U.S. Education Department is currently sponsoring a series of conferences and institutes on teacher quality, including a national conference in Washington, D.C., held last January, that brought together higher education and K-12 educators to examine promising practices. The AFT sent copies of Building a Profession to conference participants, and the response has been enthusiastic, reports Peggi Zelinko of the Education Department, who helped plan the conference and follow-up institutes. "People have been very receptive to this," Zelinko says of the report. "A lot of the kinds of things you're talking about in the report are the types of things were talking about also."

Both the AFT report and convention resolution on teacher quality make clear that unions have an indispensable contribution to make in the area of teacher preparation, induction and professional development. Defining the union's role will be the focus of a new K-12 professional development task force the AFT executive council established this summer (see story, page 17). Among the questions the task force is investigating are whether the union should make it a priority to become a major provider of top-quality professional development for K-12 teachers and paraprofessional members over the next five to 10 years and, if so, what is the most effective way to proceed.

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