Reviewing and Rating Teacher Preparation: Examining the National Council on Teacher Quality's Reform Initiative

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-13 - Educational Change and the Work of Teachers

Abstract

This paper analyzes and critiques the discourse of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) reform initiative to improve teacher preparation and explores its place in today’s larger education reform landscape. Using frame theory and Sahlberg’s (2011) idea of the “Global Education Reform Movement” (GERM), we examined 177 materials related to NCTQ’s initiative on holding teacher preparation accountable and the controversies surrounding them. We analyzed how the initiative and the counter frame define current problems with teacher preparation and unpack its solution. We found that NCTQ’s initiative intends to drive the program selection decisions of aspiring teachers, determine curricular and pedagogical decisions of teacher preparation programs, and shape discourse surrounding teacher quality and teacher education quality in the U.S..

Authors

• Wen-Chia Claire Chang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Molly Cummings Carney, Boston College

• Megina Baker, Boston University