Eliminating disparities in educaton opportunities depends on improving teaching quality - recognized as the most powerful school-based factor in student learning. The Alliance for Excellent Education supoprts the Commission for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) final report, CAEP Accreditation Standards and Evidence: Aspirations For Educator Preparation, released on Wednesday, July 10. Transforming preparation programs and aligning them to new college and career ready standards is a critical need to ensure teachers can enable a diverse student body meet twenty-first century standards of learning.
The draft CAEP standards are timely and coincide with the Council of Chief State School Officers’ task force’s report on teacher preparation, Our Responsibility, Our Promise: Transforming Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession. The report’s recommendations urge states to exercise their authority for determining which teacher preparation programs should operate and which candidates should be credentialed. The draft CAEP standards are similar to the recommendations outlined for states to approve preparation programs. They call for providers to recruit candidates based on supply and demand data, have highly selective admissions and exit criteria, provide high-quality clinical practice throughout a candidate’s preparation, and produce quality candidates capable of positively impacting student achievement. In addition, the mechanism prescribed for holding preparation programs accountable is the same—the design of a performance rating system that provides relevant information to support continuous improvements in educator preparation programs and program approval reform.
Twenty-five states signed on the CCSSO task force recommendations that call for an increased emphasis on connecting data on educator effectiveness back to the programs that prepare educators. Many efforts are already underway in states and preparation programs to collect and analyze data, including the development of state longitudinal data systems, which should be in place in every state by the end of 2013. New educator evaluation systems are required under the Race to the Top state grants, and, most recently, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility waivers granted to thirty-four states and Washington, DC. Likewise, the CAEP standards would require using valid student growth measures utilized in teacher evaluation systems as a measure of the impact of program completers on P-12 student learning. Data from well-designed evaluation systems used to improve teachers’ practice should be used as well to improve the preparation programs that prepare them.
The Alliance applauds the CAEP commission for committing to establishing rigorous standards for teacher preparation programs. The United States’ public education system is at a seminal moment in its history with the adoption by forty-six states of the Common Core State Standards. Making good on the promise of these rigorous academic standards for students requires an equivalent commitment to establishing high standards for teacher preparation programs. Nothing is more important to ensuring students can succeed in school and beyond than placing a high value on a skilled and committed teaching profession.
On August 15 at 1:00 p.m. EDT, the Alliance will hold a webinar featuring Jim Cibulka, President, Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, along with the Council of Chief State School Officers to discuss next-generation standards for a new vision of teaching for the twenty-first century. Register to watch the webinar at http://media.all4ed.org/registration-aug-15-2013.
Bob Wise is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia.