After two decades of independence, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association has voted to rejoin its state parent and the National Education Association.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council is expected to approve the M.T.E.A.'s membership at its annual meeting next month, said Richard Terry, the director of affiliate relations for WEAC.
The national group is expected to vote this spring on whether to allow the local union to realign with its 2.1 million members.
More than 80 percent of the M.T.E.A.'s 6,000 teachers last month voted to return to the fold, but the support and other school personnel represented by the union have not decided whether to join them.
The Milwaukee union--the largest education local in the state--broke away from WEAC in 1973 over issues of local control, Chuck Howard, the group’s president, said. “We felt the state [union] didn’t understand our problems.’'
The local was one of only a few collective-bargaining unions for educators in the United States that was not controlled by the N.E.A. or the American Federation of Teachers.
The Kansas board of education has unveiled a plan that could turn teacher preparation and certification in the state on its head.
After 18 months of study, education officials recommended last month that the state license teachers for meeting professional outcomes rather than for completing a series of college courses.
Under the plan, teachers would be required to demonstrate their competence in the classroom for one to two years before being licensed, and education schools would be accredited based on how well they train new teachers to meet the performance standards.
The state board is expected to vote on the proposal this month, after getting feedback from educators and the public.
The Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle has received a four-year, $2.9 million grant to help colleges of education and their partner schools redesign teacher-preparation programs.
The grant, awarded this month by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, will pay for restructuring at some of the 16 school-university sites that make up the National Network for Educational Renewal, the brainchild of the educator and author John I. Goodlad.
The institute, which is also headed by Mr. Goodlad, was established to conduct research on schools, teacher education, and learning communities.
