Recent changes in standards for the programs that prepare the nation’s teacher work force mark the beginning of a new era in teacher education. If the standards—approved in August by a new national accrediting body—are enforced properly, institutions that have used teacher education as a cash cow to pay for other priorities will no longer be able to do so. Instead, their programs will be judged by the real-world impact of their graduates in the classroom.
The new standards will identify what high-quality programs should look like, force teacher-education programs to be more selective, use assessment of student learning as crucial evidence of teacher performance, and hold alternative providers, such as online programs and Teach for America, to the same high standard as that of campus-based programs. {Continued online]
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