Teacher Education Policies in the United States: Public Scholarship or a De Facto National Curriculum?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Government's Role in Shaping Education Reform

Abstract

In just over two decades, all fifty states have adopted a sequence of standards-based reform policies addressing teacher preparation, licensing, and evaluation. Each tightens links between what teachers know and are able to do with pupil learning. Using the theoretical underpinnings of policy problems and legislative instruments along with the theory of tipping points (Grodzins, 1957; Gladwell, 2000), this conceptual paper examines how a trickling down of these policies over the last 25 years tipped the scales of teacher education authority to national policy-makers. The findings ask the question, which policy-making authority will take up the true challenge of meeting the needs of students historically under-served by the nation’s educational system.

Author

• Barbara L. Bales, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee