College Presidents must Lead
Effort to Improve Teacher Training,
Education Chief Says

        College and university presidents must play a greater role in making the improvement of teacher training a priority at their institutions, because that training is the most important issue facing public education, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said Tuesday, February 16  in his annual State of American Education Speech.
        Riley, speaking at California State University at Long Beach, outlined several programs that his department plans to start during the next year to foster the involvement of college leaders in improving teacher training.
         These programs include steps to address accountability and teacher quality by asking states to consider a new approach in reforming teacher licensure and compensation.
        The first priority, Riley said, is improving teacher education --  a task that colleges have seriously neglected. "There is nothing, in my opinion, that is more important to the future of public education," he said.
     "To prepare the next generation of teachers, we must turn to the presidents of our great colleges and universities for leadership.
        His department's other plans for improving schools, including programs that focus on early-childhood development, elementary-school reading, and college preparation, "will not happen unless we make teaching a first-class profession," he said.
        He called for university presidents to support their colleges of education to reach a new level of rigor and to create more clinical experience in schools for teacher-education students.
        "Future teachers need to be learning how to teach alongside master teachers," he said.
        His department's other plans for improving schools, including programs that focus on early-childhood development, elementary-school reading, and college preparation, "will not happen unless we make teaching a first-class profession," he said.
         Riley also called for ending emergency certification of teachers and for creating a three-tiered licensing system. His proposal is much like one currently under review in Wisconsin.
         Under his proposal, new teachers would be granted three-year, provisional licenses after passing written exams in their academic subjects and pedagogy, as well as an assessment of their teaching performance. After this "trial period," teachers would apply for professional licenses that would involve peer review by a panel of teachers and a supervisor.
         Teachers then could work to obtain voluntary, advanced licenses for demonstrating their professional mastery.

         His address, details on his proposals, & more can be found on the U.S. Department of Education Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/990216.html