Teacher education provided by U. S. colleges and universities has been routinely criticized since its inception in the early nineteenth century, sometimes deservedly. These programs, like non-university programs, are uneven in quality and can be improved. What makes today’s criticisms different is an aggressive effort by advocacy groups, and self-proclaimed educational entrepreneurs to deregulate the preparation of teachers, and to expand independent, alternative routes into teaching.
This effort to “disrupt” the field of teacher preparation in the United States has gained considerable momentum and legitimacy, with venture capitalists, philanthropy, and the U. S Department of Education all providing sponsorship and substantial funding.
The strength of this effort is that the United States may quickly seek to dismantle its university system and replace much of it with independent, private programs. The resulting system of teacher preparation may differ dramatically in its governance, structure, content, and processes moving away from its current location alongside legal, medical, and other professional preparation that pairs academic degrees with professional training.
Throughout the nation, states are reporting teacher shortages in particular subject areas and geographical locations, and several states have either passed legislation to lower the standards for becoming a teacher or, like the state of Washington, have looked towards expanding the number of teacher education providers to try to fill teaching vacancies. The federal government has contributed to the push to lower standards for becoming a teacher with the Teacher Preparation Academy provision in the new K-12 education law, the Every Students Succeeds Act, which encourages states to expand the number of independent programs not associated with colleges and universities.
Because of the increasing tuition rates, a consequence in part, of cuts in funding to public universities that continue to educate most U. S. teachers, enrollments in college and university teacher education programs have declined in many parts of the country. Independent teacher education programs are being viewed by some as an important part of the solution in staffing the nation’s classrooms and addressing our serious and enduring problems in education inequities. Additionally, advocacy groups, philanthropists, and so-called education entrepreneurs are working aggressively to expand these independent alternative routes into teaching.
Given the seriousness of the teacher shortage problem in the United States and the substantial media attention that has been given to independent teacher education programs as the solution to teacher shortages and education inequities, policy makers should very carefully examine the evidence that exists about the nature and impact of these relatively new programs that are rapidly expanding while university teacher education enrollments decline.
