Teacher Education in America is a thought-provoking analysis of the major issues and problems surrounding teacher preparation. Christopher Lucas offers valuable insights into this ongoing debate. Including an illuminating account of the history of teacher education in the United States.

Teacher education has been subject to both scathing criticism and innumerable efforts designed to reform it or to save it from being dismantled. One of the latest and most well funded efforts aimed at teacher education reform is boldly titled Teachers for a New Era (TNE). Eleven colleges and universities of various types nationwide were selected to participate in TNE. The TNE initiative emphasizes evidence-based decisionmaking, close collaboration between education and arts and sciences faculty, and teaching as an academically taught clinical-practice profession. The RAND Corporation and the M.

This book tells the story of how the education faculty in a small, Midwestern liberal arts college recovered from the loss of its NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) accreditation. Over a period of ten years, the faculty revitalized, reconceptualized, and redesigned their teacher education program, regaining accreditation in the process. Among the areas addressed are developing a conceptual framework and an assessment plan, the teaching of literacy and writing, field placements, technology integration, creative staffing, and diversity. What emerges is a portrait of a faculty engaged in a vibrant and developmental process of change and reform focused on the preparation of quality teachers for America's schools.

Transforming Teacher Education through Service-Learning provides a fresh look at educational reform through the lens of teacher preparation. It poses the question “Why service-learning now?” as it discusses the meaningful ways service-learning pedagogy can transform the approaches used to prepare teachers to educate tomorrow’s children. The pedagogy of service-learning has significant implications for teacher education. Its transformative aspects have far reaching potential to address teacher candidate dispositions and provide deeper understanding of diversity. Knowledge of the pedagogy and how to implement it in candidates’ future classrooms could alter education to a more powerful experience of democracy in action and enhance the civic mission of schools. The current and ongoing research found within this volume is meant to continue support of the notion of educational reform. Because the vision we hold becomes the reality we experience, it is imperative to consider the question—Why service-learning now?—as we adjust teacher preparation programs to promote engaging opportunities for today’s youth.

Teaching in Context provides new evidence from a range of leading scholars showing that teachers become more effective when they work in organizations that support them in comprehensive and coordinated ways. The studies featured in the book suggest an alternative approach to enhancing teacher quality: creating conditions and school structures that facilitate the transmission and sharing of knowledge among teachers, allowing teachers to work together effectively, and capitalizing on what we know about how educators learn and improve. The chapters in this book point to the need to reevaluate current policies for assessing and ensuring teacher effectiveness, and establish the foundation for a more thoughtful, research-informed approach. "What a wonderful collection of diverse voices in this book, all sounding a similar message. Successful schools encourage and support purposeful collaboration among adults and they focus on students. In these schools, teachers feel more rewarded for their efforts and students learn more. Practitioners and researchers understand these findings. Now, let's build education policies that enable them." --John Q. Easton, vice president of programs, Spencer Foundation "Teaching in Context is a call to action--one to which Esther Quintero and her colleagues invite us to imagine, build, nurture, and protect a profession and culture fueled by supportive networks that produce more trust and less churn." --Ralph R. Smith, managing director, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Esther Quintero is a senior fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute. Andy Hargreaves is the Brennan Chair in Education at Boston College.

"This book creates the argument for more sufficient online teacher preparation in higher education and is geared toward all members of higher education including faculty, administrators, and educational affiliates"--Provided by publisher.

Enhancing Teacher Education, Development, and Evaluation examines the complex role that recent educational reforms have played in the teaching profession. The failure of programs like Race to the Top to benefit teaching and learning outcomes has yielded many questions about what went wrong and how a research-based plan for true systemic progress could actually work. Covering inaccurate narratives about schools and student achievement, evidence for teacher effectiveness, and the history and repercussions of Race to the Top, this book culminates with a proposal for future research and policy initiatives that more accurately and more equitably prioritize the measurement and improvement of teaching and learning. Five concise yet comprehensive chapters invite teacher and principal educators, teachers and school leaders in training, district administrators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to better understand the implications of and possible paths beyond misguided reform efforts. An overview of the recent past and an inspiration for the immediate future, this definitive analysis offers insights into how more reasonable, empirically derived strategies will ultimately foster more successful schools.