“We are living through a revolution in our times that represents the most fundamental change in education since the rise of popular school systems during the 19th century.”
Lawrence A. Cremin, president of Columbia Teachers College, speaking at a recent meeting of school administrators in New York City.
“The Commission recognizes that perhaps one of the most acute educational problems facing this nation--one most directly related to assuring quality in higher education--is the need to improve the preparation of those who teach in the primary and secondary schools. The issue of recruiting and retaining the best possible teachers involves many factors other than their training during college years, but it is this training for which colleges and universities are responsible. The Commission feels strongly that both the attractiveness of the profession of teaching and teacher preparation itself must be improved [commission’s emphasis]. Foundation support could be used to advantage in identifying appropriate strategies.
Certainly high priority should be given to eliminating substandard teacher-education programs. Similarly, administrators and faculty members of appropriate higher-education institutions should work with state policymakers and appropriate representatives of the elementary- and secondary-school systems to ensure that teacher-certification requirements are related to performance rather than to protection of the profession.”
The National Commission on Higher Education Issues in its recently released report titled, “To Strengthen Quality in Higher Education.”
“Maybe kids aren’t dropping out because there aren’t many jobs. We’d like to believe [the lower dropout rate] is from better programming and better instruction. But we have to be realistic.”
John Pisapia, assistant superintendent in the West Virginia Department of Education, commenting on last month’s announcement that the dropout rate in the state’s public schools has declined.
“I have found that some people are not sending their children to public schools because of their religious convictions. If they want to teach them in their own home, I think they have the right under the Constitution. From information I get, we understand [that] the children taught in their own homes are getting an education that is equal to or superior to education that’s being gotten from the public-school sector.”
Representative Ben Barron Ross, chairman of the education committee of the Georgia House of Representatives, discussing legislation he introduced this month that would give the state’s General Assembly veto power over education-department regulations involving private schools.
