To the Editor:
It may well be that the OpEducation blog excerpts published in the Commentary section this summer (“Are New Teachers Ready to Teach?,” June 12, 2013) were not fully indicative of the bloggers’ perspectives. Nevertheless, I found the four excerpts to be strangely coincidental and disconcerting.
Heather Harding’s focus was the teacher’s experience (she was the senior vice president for community partnerships with Teach For America until the end of July); Ronald Thorpe centered on the need for board certification (he is the president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards); and Anne Udall spotlighted the importance of assessment literacy for teachers (she is a vice president of the Northwest Evaluation Association).
The only comment considering the impact of teacher education policies on students was that of Anthony J. Mullen, a special education teacher and the 2009 National Teacher of the Year.
Could these blog responses be indicative of the accelerating balkanization of American public schooling? The only special interest in public schooling should be our mutual interest in our students, our children, and our future.
John Eichinger
Professor
College of Education
California State University
Los Angeles, Calif.
