The National Council for the Social Studies has revised its teacher-preparation standards to make them compatible with the broader reforms being proposed for teacher education.
The new standards, which replace those in use since 1983, would strengthen requirements for coursework in history and the social sciences, while offering “more realistic” requirements for general studies and maintaining existing standards for professional education, according to Wayne Dumas, professor of education at the University of Missouri and chairman of the panel that revised the standards.
These standards could be met in either a four-year or a five-year teacher-preparation program, Mr. Dumas said.
Reform proposals advanced by the Holmes Group and the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy have called for shifting professional training to the graduate-school level.
Mr. Dumas added that the council’s document also raises admission standards for social-studies teacher-preparation programs and sets new standards for the qualifications of faculty members in such programs.
“These are standards teacher-education institutions can achieve between 1988 and 1993,” he said. “If they are unreachable, they will have no impact.”
The standards were approved by the ncss last summer and presented to delegates at the group’s annual meeting here last week. They have also been adopted by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, which will use them in evaluating teacher-preparation programs for the social studies, according to Mr. Dumas.
