Federal Reporter's Notebook

AACTE Warned of Efforts to Harm Public Education

By Vaishali Honawar — March 06, 2007 | Corrected: February 22, 2019 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Corrected: The original version of this article contained a misinterpreted word in a quote by Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, in reference to the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Diane Ravitch, no friend of the current state of teacher education, got a standing ovation from an unlikely crowd last week: a roomful of deans and directors gathered here for the annual conference of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

In a speech titled “The Future of Teacher Education in a Hostile Environment,” the New York University professor and noted education historian spoke about what she sees as attempts to cast aside public education.

“Today, we face a situation that can be described as a crisis,” Ms. Ravitch told many of the 2,600 conferees. “People in the past did not say public education needs to be dismantled, but today, there are critics who feel the public education system is obsolete.”

The “crisis talk,” she added, is “used as a rationale to destroy confidence” and to further the argument for privatizing schools.

Ms. Ravitch, a former assistant U.S. secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, called on her audience to make their voices heard collectively on the No Child Left Behind Act, which is due for reauthorization this year, and to prepare high-quality educators.

Your challenge is to prepare teachers who are superb practitioners, that schools boast about hiring them. You have to build a reputation that says our graduates are number one,” she said.

After the speech, Ms. Ravitch, who took questions from the audience, joked: “If someone told me that I’d get a standing ovation at AACTE, I’d have said you’re nuts!”

Ms. Ravitch is the co-author of an education blog that Education Week’s online counterpart, edweek.org, began hosting last week.

Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and policy group, told the deans during a session on the NCLB law that the reauthorization will not be quiet.

“It is going to be a brawl, at times,” said Mr. Jennings, noting that organizations that were excluded the last time, such as the teachers’ unions, will ask for a voice this time around.

“It will be quite a thing to watch,” predicted the former longtime education aide to House Democrats.

AACTE is lobbying for its own changes in the law, including the definition of a “highly qualified” teacher, which, the organization’s officials say, does not require that teachers actually be able to teach. In the future, the association wants the definition to be reserved for those who know their content and are able to teach it effectively.

The organization also wants the law to support the development of student-data systems that will help determine the effectiveness of teachers graduating from preparation programs, and to address the inequities in the distribution of teachers, among other requirements.

Henry L. Johnson, until recently the U.S. Department of Education’s assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, predicted major changes in the reauthorization, including a greater emphasis on high schools, more funding for high schools with large numbers of lower-income students, and an increased effort to close student-achievement gaps.

Said Mr. Johnson: “There is also going to be a tremendous discussion about [school] choice.”

At the gathering, the teacher-college association discussed an innovative idea for its members to consider in helping schools fight teacher shortages: training prospective teachers abroad and importing them to U.S. colleges, where they can receive their credentials to become fully certified in local schools.

At a session on establishing a collaborative teacher education program between India and the United States, Om Pathak, who helped set up several public schools in India, said his country has the world’s largest English-speaking population, and a large number of postgraduates, especially in the fields of mathematics and science, who are trainable and deployable as teachers. Besides, he added, teacher-preparation costs are significantly lower in India than they are in the United States.

He said India now has 900 teacher-training institutions, but that country has severe teacher shortages.

While details of the plan have not been worked out, Mr. Pathak said, the training facility in India would set up Praxis preparation and testing for teacher certification. Praxis is a teaching exam required in some states for certification.

Mwangaza Michael-Bandele, a senior director at AACTE who moderated the discussion, said association leaders are “excited about the collaboration” and are working on how best to make it happen.

A version of this article appeared in the March 07, 2007 edition of Education Week

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Opinion Student Literacy Rates Are Concerning. How Can We Turn This Around?
The ranking Republican senator on the education committee wants to hear from educators and families about making improvements.
6 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Federal Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union
President Joe Biden highlighted a number of his education priorities in a high-stakes speech as he seeks a second term.
5 min read
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Shawn Thew/Pool via AP
Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP