Strengthening R&D’s Role in Preparing an Education Workforce

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Schools of education face three serious, interrelated challenges in preparing a future workforce for America’s P-12 student population. First, they are widely criticized for not preparing an appropriate supply of qualified teachers and leaders for today’s increasingly diverse P-12 student population and the college and career ready expectations for those students. Schools of education often ignore or undervalue the needs of school districts they serve, which aggravates this workforce problem. Second, preparation programs suffer from an uneven, in some cases weak, research base on effective practices for preparing school professionals. The wide variations in candidate characteristics, curricula, clinical experiences, entrance and exit requirements, and other features are not grounded in empirical evidence of candidate performance, particularly once they are in the classroom. Third, most current research models suffer from serious shortcomings. They have produced too little innovation, insufficient attention to which preparation program practices work in what circumstances, and are too slow to drive required transformations in preparation programs. New R & D/innovation models are needed to respond to the urgency and magnitude of the challenges facing university-based preparation programs.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Mary M. Brabeck, New York University

Participants

• James G. Cibulka, Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation

• Jane R. Best, McREL International

• Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University

• David H. Monk, The Pennsylvania State University

• Paul LeMahieu, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching