On a busy Friday, the easy and preferred course of action is for me to point you to the latest School Reform News article by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow. The title of the story is “Teacher Training Overhaul Would Leave Ed Schools in Charge”:

Following a blue-ribbon panel’s lead, the nation’s largest accreditation agency for education schools has called for a fundamental overhaul of teacher preparation programs.

A report commissioned by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) advocates a clinical model for training public educators and stronger partnerships between local school districts and higher education preparation programs.

“The system we have now is far too uneven,” said NCATE president James G. Cibulka. “We have a cottage industry of innovative ideas and practices. We need to approach the problem as a systemic one.” [Link added]

Critics say some of the report’s recommendations are long overdue, while they also leave education schools too firmly in control of the teacher preparation process. For a fuller critique, read Mike Petrilli’s “Rearranging deck chairs on the ed school Titanic.” For historical background, read George Clowes’ 2002 School Reform News piece on the crumbling research behind teacher certification.