Improving Quality Teacher Prep Programs in Mathematics
By Dr. William Schmidt, Michigan State University Distinguished Professor, Director of the Center for the Study of Curriculum, and Co-Director of the Education Policy Center
There are few topics in education policy that attract more attention than teacher preparation. Whatever resources we devote to education, and however many policy changes we enact such as the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, at the end of the day it is teachers that are expected to play the essential role. It is of the utmost importance that we be able to identify what makes a good teacher, and more importantly, that we figure out how we can make people into better teachers. This brings us to the rub: Despite the sincere efforts of many researchers, we still lack a clear-cut understanding of what makes for a high-quality teacher preparation program. The evidence to date is mixed at best that traditional metrics of teacher quality – such as certification scores, higher degrees, experience, etc. – make a difference.
Read More →ELLs, the Common Core and the Next Generation Science Standards
By Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University School of Education
The educational reform energy triggered by the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards presents an exciting challenge for English Language Learners (ELLs) and their teachers. During the implementation phase, we as educators need to channel this energy well in order to simultaneously provide academically rigorous content instruction and promote English language development that is purposeful and in correspondence to the new content standards.
The Understanding Language Initiative (funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) is a national dialogue about the new standards and ELLs, with the aim of improving ELL learning through the implementation of appropriate, standards-guided instruction.
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