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Developing Policy Environments to Support Teachers for a New Era


Sponsoring Agencies: Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Annenberg Foundation, & The Ford Foundation
Research Team: Tom Corcoran (Teachers College, Columbia University); Peg Goertz (University of Pennsylvania); Julie Riordan (University of Pennsylvania); Marian Robinson (University of Pennsylvania)

 

Through its Teachers for a New Era (TNE) initiative, Carnegie Corporation of New York, with support from the Annenberg and Ford Foundations, is stimulating a thoughtful search for answers by supporting ambitious reforms in selected teacher education programs across the country. Drawing on the wisdom of national professional organizations, reform commissions, and the research community, Carnegie is challenging these institutions to develop exemplary teacher preparation programs based on three design principles:

  1. Decisions Driven by Evidence. The new teacher education programs would be guided by a culture of evidence. Program content and pedagogical practice would be based on credible evidence drawn from research literature and from the experience of their students. Program effectiveness would be determined by the impact of their graduates on student achievement, and these data would drive the continuous improvement of their programs.
  2. Effective Engagement of Arts and Sciences Faculties. The education of prospective teachers would include the full engagement of faculty in the disciplines of the arts and sciences (A&S) to ensure teachers obtained the depth of subject- matter understanding and pedagogical content knowledge needed to understand and address students' learning needs. A&S faculties would collaborate with teacher educators to ensure that prospective teachers were well prepared to teach the curricula of the public schools served by the institution.
  3. Emphasis on Teaching as a Clinical Practice Profession. Teacher education would integrate academically rigorous experiences with immersion in clinical practice. This would entail close cooperation between colleges of education and K-12 schools, use of exemplary K-12 teachers as clinical faculty appointed to the college of education, and support for residency programs for beginning teachers over a two-year period of induction.

In June 2004, Carnegie Corporation of New York commissioned CPRE to examine the policy environments in the ten states in which the grantees of the Corporation's TNE project are located. Recognizing that the success, sustainability, and replication of these reforms will depend in part on the state policy environments in which each institution operates, the Corporation has asked CPRE to investigate two critical questions:

For each of the 10 states in which TNE institutions operate, CPRE has developed a policy profile that explores the interaction of state policies and programs with the core ideas and practices associated with the three TNE design principles. The following state profiles are available for free download:

California
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Michigan
New York
Texas
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin

You may also visit the Teachers for a New Era website for more information.