AACTE Applauds Obama Education Platform; Urges Reform in Teacher Preparation

On March 10, President Obama outlined his goals for education in a speech to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. One of the pillars of his initiative is "recruiting, preparing and rewarding outstanding teachers" with incentives for a new generation of teachers and for new levels of excellence among all teachers. "President Obama has rightly targeted teacher quality as a centerpiece of his policy reforms. We are thrilled to see this focus and look forward to working with him and Secretary Duncan to make real progress," said Sharon P. Robinson, President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

AACTE has long promoted reform in teacher education and has several projects underway that will move the field forward. Among these are the performance assessment initiative and the teacher residency model. The performance assessment work is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation and will yield valid and reliable teacher assessments that can be used for both beginning teachers and veteran teachers to assess their effectiveness. The teacher residency model was authorized in the Higher Education Opportunity Act last year at the urging of AACTE. AACTE is providing technical assistance and support to its members in developing these programs, which revolve around a year long clinical internship with a master teacher in a high need school.

AACTE member institutions work to ensure that graduates from their programs are ready to meet the needs of all 21st Century learners. "Our work to develop performance assessments and teacher residency programs are the cutting edge of reform in teacher preparation," said Robinson. "We look forward to a strong partnership with the Obama Administration to move these reforms forward," she said.