(NAME-MCE) NCATE Panel to Weigh Student-Teacher Fieldwork

[Bill Howe]

>From EdWeek:



*NCATE Panel to Weigh Student-Teacher Fieldwork*

*By Stephen Sawchuk<http://www.edweek.org/ew/contributors/stephen.sawchuk.html>
*

In a sign of the increasing influence of teacher-preparation models that
emphasize practical experience over coursework, the National Council for
Accreditation of Teacher Education <http://www.ncate.org/> will convene a
high-powered panel this week to study ideas for updating student-teaching.

The recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation,
Partnerships, and Improved Student Learning, which will be unveiled this
spring, also will serve as a template for the Washington-based organization
to upgrade its clinical-fieldwork accreditation standard.

“We’ve put this on a fast track,” said James G. Cibulka, the president of
NCATE. “We didn’t want to create a commission that would study it for two or
three years.”

Since assuming the reins of the venerable accrediting body in 2008, Mr.
Cibulka has unveiled a variety of initiatives designed to help teacher
colleges experiment and spread best practices. Such practices include, for
example, permitting programs to seek reaccreditation through an extensive
research project with a partner school district. ("NCATE Offers Multiple
Reaccreditation
Paths,"<http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/22/36revision.h28.html>July
15, 2009.)

The latest announcement signals that the group will be opening up its
accreditation standards to changes for the first time since they were last
retooled, in 2000.
Expanding Fieldwork?

As part of its work, the panel will investigate a variety of ways to bolster
clinical fieldwork­—including simulations, case studies, and analyses of
teaching, in addition to student-teaching—that takes place in schools. The
goal, Mr. Cibulka said, is to conceive of teaching as a “practice-based
profession” in the mold of medicine or clinical psychology and to update
training accordingly.

Once the panel has released its report, it will form a group to guide
changes to the standards and the accreditation process. NCATE will then
pilot the changes at selected sites, much as it is now piloting its new
reaccreditation pathways with selected colleges of education..

The work could also open up fresh sites for teacher-college accreditation,
which is a voluntary process in the United States. Bringing alternative
preparation models with a strong clinical focus, such as teacher
“residencies,” into the NCATE fold has been one of Mr. Cibulka’s goals.

The residency is a hybrid preparation model that typically gives
teacher-candidates a year of experience working in an urban school setting,
supplemented by coursework that is provided on site. Some of the best-known
examples are the Boston Teacher Residency program, the Boettcher Teachers
Program in Denver, and the Academy for Urban Teacher Leadership in Chicago.

Around 20 other sites are scheduled to come online as part of a $43 million
federal investment in teacher-preparation programs. None has been accredited
thus far. ("Teacher 'Residencies' Get Federal Funding to Augment
Training ,"<http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/10/14/07residency.h29.html>Oct.
14, 2009.)

And at least one state, Tennessee, is preparing to institute residency
programs for all its undergraduate teacher-candidates, as part of a state
initiative that includes NCATE.

In looking to such models, the NCATE panel could potentially set a longer,
more rigorous bar for clinical fieldwork. The length of student-teaching is
governed mainly by state law or by regulatory agencies, and typically
requires traditional teacher-candidates to spend between 10 and 15 weeks as
student-teachers.

Anissa Listak, the managing director of Urban Teacher Residency United, a
Chicago-based network of sites that use the residency model, praised the
NCATE announcement, but added that she hopes the panel will engage with the
other core features of extensive clinical fieldwork, such as intensive
monitoring and mentoring of teacher-candidates by experienced teachers.

“It’s not just the length of time that matters, it’s also what happens
during that time that will better prepare teachers to work in our nation’s
schools,” Ms. Listak said.

The NCATE blue-ribbon panel will include representatives from universities,
the national teachers’ unions, policymakers, and practitioners, including
one from a teacher-residency program.

“It’s going to have to be a collaborative effort on the part of a lot of
stakeholders to make this shift, but I think it can be done,” Mr. Cibulka
explained. “The time is right, and there is a recognition that we all need
to do things differently and work more effectively.”



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