{"id":4178,"date":"2014-04-27T20:55:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T00:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coreeducationllc.com\/blog2\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2014-04-27T20:55:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T00:55:37","slug":"federal-policy-recommendations-for-promoting-better-prepared-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coreeducationllc.com\/blog2\/federal-policy-recommendations-for-promoting-better-prepared-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Policy Recommendations for Promoting Better Prepared Educators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tti\"<\/a>Currently, there are more first year teachers in the United States than teachers of any other experience level. At many schools, most of the teachers have only been teaching for a few years. Meanwhile, the skills and responsibilities expected of educators are expanding, as higher standards and new technologies are implemented to improve student learning.<\/p>\n

While expectations for PreK-12 educators have changed substantially, many of the programs that prepare educators have remained stagnant. Much of the responsibility for this rests with the preparation programs themselves, but states and the federal government have each played a role as well. With reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act (HEA) overdue, and both houses of Congress holding hearings focused on teacher preparation, the time is ripe for a renewed focus on improving educator preparation programs and the teachers and school leaders they produce.<\/p>\n

In “Time to Improve: How Federal Policy Can Promote Better Prepared Teachers and School Leaders<\/a>,” New America’s Melissa Tooley and Laura Bornfreund offer recommendations for a new federal approach to addressing current issues with educator preparation and advancement policies that recognize the need to move quickly, yet thoughtfully, to promote better prepared teachers and school leaders.<\/p>\n

Currently, federal law requires all colleges preparing teachers to submit “report cards” on teacher preparation and states to designate programs as “at risk” or “low performing.” While these demands may have been created for the right reasons, Tooley and Bornfreund have found that the data being collected to corroborate the reports from colleges is woefully complicated and inadequate.\u00a0 Education Week summarizes their call to colleges as follows:<\/p>\n