Innovation and the Evolving System of U.S. Teacher Preparation

Abstract

A longstanding tradition criticizes education schools for their presumed vapid curriculum, out-of-touch faculty, irrelevance, and suffocating ideology. What is different at present is the enthusiasm for alternatives to university-based teacher preparation, as well as the increasing interest in holding teacher preparation programs accountable. I begin by briefly summarizing the criticisms of traditional university-based teacher preparation. I then describe a set of ideas—an ideology—that are central to new efforts to improve teacher education that have altered the landscape (Grossman & Loeb, 2008), including the need to involve social entrepreneurs, the use of data, and holding teacher education accountable in more public ways, including posting value-added scores for program graduates. I conclude with a discussion of unresolved issues that teacher educators all face.