On July 21, the National Council on Teacher Quality published a report on the quality of student teaching across the United States. The objective was to examine a sample of teacher preparation programs, focusing on the student teaching experience, and rate their effectiveness.
The report looked at a total of 134 colleges and determined that most institutions were “generally weak” and that 25% were “deficient”. Oklahoma State University, Colorado Christian University and Wheelock College were among a handful of institutions with what were determined to have strong Student Teaching Programs.
Far Too Many Candidates in the Student Teaching Field
The first major finding of the study indicated that there simply are not enough qualified cooperating teachers for the number of elementary student teachers that public and private colleges and universities are attempting to place. In fact, the report claims that at least twice the number of new teachers hired each year are being recommended for teacher certification.
This finding questions whether or not the programs are producing the best and most highly-qualified teachers for the openings available. The result of the sheer number of student teachers that institutions must place results in the lack of requirements on the part of the institution for cooperating teachers. This finding also leads to the next issue – that of the participating schools’ criteria for assigning cooperating teachers.
Lack of “rigorous criteria” in Place for Cooperating Teachers
While most schools that participate in accepting student teachers do require cooperating teachers to meet some standards in order to take on a student teacher, the issue of teaching effectiveness and mentoring effectiveness are too often not considered. In fact, according to the report, 75% of participating schools do not look at the effectiveness of the cooperating teacher’s instruction and more than half do not require any mentoring training.
Part of the issue here falls on method of selection and part of the issue falls back on the lack of funding to school districts. If schools do not have the funds to train their teachers to become better mentors, they must rely on those teachers who possess some intrinsic ability to mentor others, or else the ability to mentor is overlooked entirely.
Mentoring Lacking from Institutions
The blame for lack of mentoring (or poor mentoring) cannot fall solely upon the cooperating schools and cooperating teachers, though, as the report also found a lack of important guidance from the institution placing the student teachers.
The more people who are walking along side teachers in training, guiding, mentoring and providing valuable feedback, the better the student teacher will be during his or her first year. Along with these findings, the report makes several suggestions for improving student teacher programs, including longer student teacher experiences and institutions recommending fewer teachers for certification.
For more details on the report along with a list of recommendations for improving the Student Teaching experience, visit the National Council on Teacher Quality Report: Student Teaching in the United States
Jennifer Wagaman - Jennifer is a mother of 2 and has both public, private and administrative experience in the education field.
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