Teacher Education in America: Reform Agendas for the Twenty-First Century

352 Pages·1999·18.628 MB·English

by  Christopher J. Lucas (auth.)

TEACHER EDUCATION
IN AMERICA
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TEACHER EDUCATION
IN AMERICA
Reform Agendas
for the Twenty-First Century
Christopher J. Lucas
St. Martin's Press
New York
TEACHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA
Copyright© 1997, 1999 by ChristopheJr. Lucas
All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St.
Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
ISBN 978-0-312-22454-7 ISBN 978-1-137-07269-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-07269-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lucas, Christopher J.
Teacher education in America: reform agendas for the 21st century
I Christopher J. Lucas
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Teachers-Training of-United States. 2. Educational change
-United States I. Title.
LB1715.L73 1997
370.71'0973-dcZO 96-35421
CIP
Book design by Acme Art, Inc.
First edition: March 1997
First paperback edition: August 1999
10 9 8 7 6 543 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Preface ..... . . ix
PART I.
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
1. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER
EDUCATION IN AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Colonial Schoolmasters I Early Teacher Licensure I Antebellum
Teachers I The Common-School Crusade I Feminization of the
Teaching Force I Advocacy for Formal Teacher Preparation I
Teachers' Institutes I Normal Schools I Controversy and Conflict I
University Teacher Training
2. TEACHER PREPARATION IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Teacher Certification I From Normal Schools to State Teachers'
Colleges I Teacher Preparation in the Universities I The Continuing
Quest for Academic Legitimacy I Postwar Critics I The Miseducation
of American Teachers I The Conant Report I Fads and Fashions: The
Rhetoric of Teacher-Education Reform I Deja Vu
PART II.
THE CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT
3. ISSUES OLD AND NEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Market Constraints on Teacher Education I Historical Traditions of
Thought and Practice in Teacher Preparation I Criteria Governing
Entry into Teaching I General Learning for Teachers I The Teaching
vi Teacher Education in America
Major I The Professional Component in Teacher Education: Methods
Courses I The Teacher Effectiveness Question I Alternative Views I
Student Teaching and School Culture I Changing the Teacher Work
place I Teaching as a Profession
4. STRUCTURAL ALTERNATIVES ............. 139
Calls for Extended Preservice Teacher Education I Arguments Pro
and Con I The Carnegie and Holmes Group Initiatives I Reactions and
Responses I Further Criticism I Professional Development Partner
ships I Alternative and Site-Based Programs I The Goodlad Project I
Assessing Options
5. ACCREDITATION AND CERTIFICATION
STANDARDS ...................... 183
State Influence and Control over Teacher Preparation I State Stan
dards for Teacher Licensure and Certification I Testing Teacher
Candidates I Criticism of State Regulations I National Accreditation
Standards I National Teacher Licensure and Certification Standards
I Dissenting Views I Misconceived Standards
PART III.
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
6. WHAT EXPERIENCED TEACHERS
RECOMMEND: A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS ... 225
Introduction: Teachers as Program Evaluators I The Sample and
Survey Instrument I Major Findings I Discussion I Possible
Implications
7. SOME PROPOSALS .................... 249
Disagreements in Review I General Liberal Studies I Preservice
Practica I Initial Teacher Certification I Field-Based Teacher Prepa
ration I Academic Sponsorship of Initial Teacher Licensure I Clinical
Preparation I Possible Criticisms and Responses
Afterword ......................................... 293
Notes ............................................. 303
Index ............................................. 341
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks are owed to Karen Stauffacher, Phillip Besonen, and
Teresa Bevis, who kindly consented to review and critique preliminary
manuscript drafts; to Amy Charland and Diane Darnicone, for their
invaluable help with source materials; to Bart Cohen and Gary Shepard,
for technical support; to Leanne Hoofnagle, Tommy Van Asten, and
Sonja Bennett, for essential clerical assistance; to Sean Mulvenon, Eric
Stricker, Debbie Alberth, Fred Bonner, Brenda Hall, Donna Goodwin,
and Beverly Reed of the Arkansas Leadership Academy, for help in
conducting the teacher study; to Clyde Iglinsky, John Murry, Gerald
Siegrist, Barbara Gartin, George Denny, James Bolding, David Hart,
James Swartz, Martin Schoppmeyer, Jack Helfeldt, and Charles Steg
man, for their several provocative suggestions, documents, and ideas;
and to the hundreds of public school administrators and teachers who
lent their cooperation in the survey portion of this project.
Without their help, this study could not have been completed.
Opinions and suggestions within the narrative (except as otherwise
noted), of course, are the author's sole responsibility.
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PREFACE
In 1988, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
released a profoundly disquieting study of American teachers. Entitled
Report Card on School Reform: The Teachers Speak, it found public
school teachers across the nation feeling deeply "dispirited."1 In the
aftermath of successive waves of reform, working conditions in schools
had changed, but not necessarily for the better; and teachers reportedly
felt "more responsible but less empowered" in their jobs. "Loss of status,
bureaucratic pressures, negative public image, and lack of recognition
and rewards" for teaching had all allegedly contributed to a precipitous
decline in morale. Despite the many high-profile initiatives launched to
improve public schooling in the 1980s, the study concluded, almost half
of all teachers polled claimed morale had actually gone down. Less than
one-fourth claimed it had gotten better.Z
Writing four years later, Benjamin R. Barber, Whitman Professor
of Political Science at Rutgers, judged that teachers still ranked "among
the least respected and least remunerated of American professionals."
Directly contradicting the rhetoric of teacher empowerment, Barber's
estimation was that the standing of American schoolteachers had
changed little if at all and that teachers as an occupational class generally
enjoyed neither the respect of their students nor that of the public at
large. Per-capita spending on public schooling in the United States, he
further noted, was high compared with that of many other developed
societies. But teachers' wages and monies for educational programs
remained low.3
Barber's assessment of low teacher status was probably on target,
although perhaps it did not fully take into account trends already
beginning to affect teachers' salaries. Figures released by the U.S.
Department of Education in 1994, for example, indicated that over the
previous seven years, the average annual salary of the country's esti
mated 3 million teachers actually had registered a significant increase,
marking a substantial gain over levels prevailing throughout the decade