Student Teachers Left Behind

A Schools Matter reader sent this article along by Doug Selwyn at Rethinking Schools Online . It is time for schools of education to step up to the plate and educate the nation's young teachers who will be faced with the oppressive, unjust, draconian policies of a corrupt government more interested in the short-term bottom line of corporations than in real and meaningful education reform. The dialogue and the conversation has to begin somewhere. What better place than where the nation's future educators and leaders are currently being trained?

The negative impact NCLB is having on student teaching is another example of why this law must be repealed. Selwyn points to the increasing difficulty ed schools face in placing student teachers because of adminstrators' fears that a new and inexperienced teacher may not possess the skills associated with teaching to the test. In the world of accountability and punitive sanctions, student teachers are viewed as a liability when it comes to raising test scores and avoiding sanctions.

How much more damage will be done in the name of accountability? It's time to hold those who hide behind the empty rhetoric and drumbeat of accountability to be held accountable for the destruction being inflicted on the education profession. Educating teachers about NCLB and public policies in general that will impact their careers, their lives and the welfare of their students should be a core requirement of any teacher education program.
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We are not satisfied with our ideas about how to be most effective in this climate. We asked our current students how we could best prepare them (and those students who will follow them) to deal with the NCLB environment. They had the following suggestions:

Really push students to get to know the law. I know you push us to become familiar with NCLB, and to realize that education is political, but I never really read it. Give us the assignment to get to know the law so that we can be more aware of what it really says.

Have more conversations about the realities of the politics of schools. As depressing as it is, it is helpful to have these conversations, and to develop strategies together to both survive and to serve our students.

Bring theory and practice together in a practical manner so that students can learn how to satisfy both NCLB and their souls. Many students felt excited and inspired by the constructivist, child-centered approaches that focus on social justice advocated at Antioch, and then betrayed when they entered schools only concerned with following scripts and meeting cut scores. They felt a strong need to know how to survive in the NCLB system long enough to bring change to it.

It is a large challenge that we face in teacher education, but it is one we must face; we really have no choice if we wish to save public education and the teaching profession.
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