Group gives bad grade to teacher education
David Chard, dean of SMU's Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, talks about a report by The National Council on Teacher Quality that is critical of teacher education in Texas.
By ERICKA MELLON
The Houston Chronicle
Texas' schools of education generally are doing a poor job of training prospective teachers, according to a preliminary study already drawing scorn from many college deans.
The National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., has graded each of the 67 college-based teacher training programs in Texas. The council is awaiting responses from more deans — most of whom have ignored its request — before publishing the report. . .
But at least one dean has shied away from criticizing the council, which issued a draft of its findings to the colleges last month.
“We've taken the opportunity to try to help them make their review more accurate and more valid,” said David Chard, dean of Southern Methodist University's School of Education and Human Development. “But we've also realized they could be helpful to us by helping us identify areas of weakness.”
# # #