Foundation To Study Preparation Of Teachers

By Julie Blair

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching unveiled a 5-year, $3- million initiative this month that will bring together some of the nation's top scholars to examine how teacher education classes are taught, how prospective teachers learn, and how their learning is evaluated.

The initiative is one element of a 10-year, $10 million effort to study the ways in which professionals are trained, said Lee S. Shulman, the president of the nonprofit research organization, based in Menlo Park, Calif. The foundation began the project two years ago and is examining the professions of law, engineering, medicine, social work, and the clergy, in addition to teaching.

"This is the first time that the education of teachers has been examined systematically as part of a larger effort to understand the preparation for professions," Mr. Shulman said. "In the preparation of lawyers and engineers, for example, there are some of the very same problems we thought were unique nightmares...