NCATE "to incubate a whole new form of teacher education"

During the Bush/Spellings years, Spellings exercised old-fashioned intimidation against accrediting agencies, using threats to withdraw federal funding and federal recognition from accreditors unwilling to line up behind the antiquarian notions of the scary clown in charge of the Spellings Commission, Charles Miller.  None of her threats, however, brought the desired results of turning colleges into the same kind of useless corporate data mines that have stripped K-12 schools of their educative potential.

With hundreds of billions in education dollars at stake each year,  and with the deliriously loony mantra broadcast constantly that the U. S. is going to educate itself out of the economic meltdown that education had no part in creating, the educational testing complex has quickly shifted its strategy away from empty threats.  They have taken the inside track that clearly expresses the strategy of, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em--and then beat 'em.

 One of the remaining stumbling blocks to the total corporate takeover of K-12 has been the university teacher education programs that have often stubbornly clung to scholarship, best practices, humane values, and a long-standing democratic ethos in the face of tremendous pressure from the education industrial complex. This honing and homing in by technocrats and testocrats comes in the form of a new agenda shaped by "experts" who have put into place the desires of the oligarchs as expressed through their corporate foundation hives.  

In conjunction with NCATE, who has claimed its place at the feeding trough, this morning Arne Duncan is offering the platitudes about this new "incubation" process.  It will be interesting to see how fast he can place his cuckoo eggs into university (and other) nests around the country to produce data-driven, anti-cultural prison guards that cannot be distinguished from the glassy-eyed Ivy League drones from Teach for America:  Cheap, replaceable, compliant, patronizing, positivized, and ignorant of history, theory, and cognition.

But maybe I'm wrong.  Here is the announcement, and we will know something different by lunch:

Education Leaders, Policymakers, and Critics of Teacher Education
Call For Teacher Education to be Turned “Upside Down”

NCATE Will Release Report on Preparing Effective Educators and
Announce States that Have Agreed To Implement Recommendations

WASHINGTON – On Nov. 16, 2010, a national expert panel will call for teacher education to be “turned upside down” by revamping programs to prioritize clinical practice and partnerships with school districts. The sweeping changes will pave the way for more effective training that better addresses student needs and shifts accountability closer to the classroom.

The panel, comprising national education leaders, policymakers, education school deans, and vocal critics of teacher preparation will set out a bold new direction for how we deliver, monitor, evaluate, oversee, and staff clinically based preparation to incubate a whole new form of teacher education. Its report, Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers, will offer recommendations focused on strengthening candidate selection and placement; revamping curricula, incentives, and staffing; strengthening partnerships; and expanding the knowledge base. At the briefing, NCATE also will announce several states that have agreed to implement the new agenda.

Participants in the event will include:
The Honorable Arne Duncan, Secretary, United States Department of Education 
James G. Cibulka, President, NCATE 
Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor, State University of New York and panel co-chair
Dwight Jones, Commissioner of Education, Colorado Department of Education and panel co-chair 
Peter McWalters, Program Director, CCSSO
Donna Wiseman, Dean, College of Education, University of Maryland and Chair-Elect, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
Jesse Solomon, Executive Director, Boston Teacher Residency
Kathy Wiebke, National Board Certified Teacher, Executive Director, K-12 Center, Northern Arizona University 
Rebecca S. Pringle, Secretary-Treasurer, National Education Association
Christopher Steinhauser, Superintendent, Long Beach Unified Public Schools
Arthur Levine, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Frederick Hess, Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

LISTEN ONLY CONFERENCE CALL: 1-888-293-6979
Conference ID: 6596436