Improving Teacher Education in the United States

• In Event: To Know Is Not Enough: Commissioned Essay Writers—Saturday (Coffee)

Abstract

There is a consensus among educators, researchers, policymakers and the general public that despite the existence of some outstanding teacher education programs, the education of teachers in the United States needs to become much better and do more to contribute to addressing the opportunity and achievement gaps that continue to exist in public education (e.g., Darling‐Hammond 2006; Duncan, 2009; Hess, 2001; Levine, 2006). These problems with inequitable access to a high quality public education are not solely due to weaknesses in teaching and in the programs that prepare teachers or even to schooling itself, and therefore, cannot be solved by school and teacher education reform alone (Anyon, 2005; National Academy of Education, 2009; Rothstein, 2004). However, at the same time research has clearly identified enduring weaknesses in teacher preparation that have not been addressed in a significant way despite all of the research over the last 30 years that has repeatedly illuminated them (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1996; Cochran‐Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling‐Hammond & Bransford, 2005; National Research Council, 2010; Wilson, Floden & Ferrini‐Mundy, 2001).

Author

• Kenneth Zeichner, University of Washington