Saturday, August 31, 2013

Should ed school accreditation standards be changed?

WSJ reports that the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation is planning to change their standards as part of a push to increasing teacher quality.  Incoming freshmen would need to have a 3.0 GPA in high school, as compared to the current 2.5.  Freshmen also would be expected to have SAT/ACT scores in the top 50% by 2017, rising to the top third by 2020.  Ed schools also would be required to track their graduates' performance in the classroom, which presumably means more emphasis on test scores. 

This all sounds very well-intentioned.  But unless teacher salaries adjust to the top third of the college graduate salary distribution, I am skeptical that ed schools will be able to meet these goals.  Also, I wonder if more attention should be paid to what actually happens in teacher ed programs, especially in terms of opportunities to get ed students classroom experience well before they graduate. 

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