Train teachers like doctors, says report

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 Carnegie 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.

To read the Carnegie report, go to www.carnegie.org/pdf/teachered.pdf. The AFT report is available online on our Web site.   

For Latinos, access is half the battle

Latino students are finding their way to college in strong numbers, a new report shows, but after they enroll, something happens. Many fail to persist long enough to receive a degree.

A study released this fall by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington, D.C.-based policy group, uses U.S. Census data from 1997 to 2000 to analyze the education performance of Latino high school graduates. It finds both good news and bad in the unique college-going patterns of this rapidly growing population.

The good news is that second-generation Latinos, those born and educated in the United States, attend college at rates very close to those of non-Hispanic whites. For the Latinos, 42 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds who are high school graduates are enrolled in college, compared with 46 percent of white high school graduates in the same age group. The bad news is how these Latino students go to college. "They go in ways that make it difficult to finish their studies," says Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center and author of "Latinos in Higher Education: Many Enroll, Too Few Graduate."

Latino students tend to go to school part time rather than full time and are more likely to be enrolled in two-year colleges. Forty percent of traditional college-aged Latinos are enrolled in two-year institutions, as compared with 25 percent of white and black students. Although nearly 85 percent of white students attend college full time, the percentage for Latinos is only 75.

A primary reason Latino students attend college only part time is because they work, live at home and contribute to the family income, the report notes. Two-year colleges are usually nonresidential and more affordable than four-year institutions. "We know from other research that less-than-full-time enrollment in two-year studies is not conducive to finishing degrees," says Fry.

The challenges of raising degree-completion rates, notes Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, "are not overwhelming. The students are on campus, and they are enrolled." Recommendations the Center makes in its report include targeting financial aid and academic support to these students, and providing them with an orientation that speaks to their situation as the first generation in their family to pursue postsecondary education.

We like international education

Americans' belief in the value of international education was not diminished by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a year ago. A survey sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE) found that in March 2002, the public, undergraduates and college faculty strongly supported international education, study-abroad programs and language training.

In March, 77 percent of the public supported international course requirements in college (the same level of support shown in an April 2000 survey on the same subject). One-fourth of those surveyed said their formal education did not provide enough knowledge for them to fully understand current events.

Support for study-abroad programs was up from April 2000, when 75 percent agreed that students should have such an experience. In March 2002, 79 percent agreed. Support for a member of the family studying abroad was not as strong, ACE found. Forty percent of all Americans and 58 percent of respondents older than 45 said they were less likely or much less likely to encourage a family member to study abroad. In addition, 42 percent said that, since 9/11, they would be less likely to support more international students in their own communities.

Foreign language requirements in both high school and college also were an easier sell this year. The survey found that 80 percent of those surveyed supported this requirement for high school graduation and 74 percent for college. This was a three point increase in the past two years.

The poll, "One Year Later: Attitudes about International Education Since September 11," is available at www.acenet.edu/programs/international/.