BusinessTN

In a series of reports he published in 2006 on the topic of teacher training and preparation, noted education scholar Arthur Levine found that the vast majority of aspiring teachers are woefully unprepared to do the job. According to Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and former president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, teacher education programs are chaotic and have no common length of study or required skills as in other professions like medicine. Levine described teacher education as "the Dodge City" of education.

Research indicates conclusively that a quality teacher is the clear-cut biggest factor in a student's achievement. As such, the Tennessee State Board of Education deserves praise for its largely unpublicized adoption last year of new rules for teacher licensure in Tennessee. The changes (which Gov. Phil Bredesen and his education policy team spearheaded) will bring to Tennessee classrooms highly qualified men and women from a broader pool of talent than just our existing colleges of education. The results could be profound.

Start with the premise that there are not enough excellent teachers to go around. Global comparisons revealing America's low rank in math and science proficiency further reveal that our educational system doesn't have enough qualified teachers teaching in those subjects. And it's all too common for teachers to be teaching coursework that has nothing to do with the core subject they studied in college.

Historically speaking, one significant barrier to attracting more talent to Tennessee classrooms has been that programs like Teach for America--which exist through fundraising efforts to train alternative licensure individuals--have heretofore been required to link their candidates up with some higher ed institution so the candidates could begin pursuit of a teacher license using the traditional (read: chaotic) method. That's hardly conducive to bringing talented individuals into the profession, even in a troubled economy where such teaching jobs might be quite attractive to unemployed professionals.

Now, under revised state regulations, the state board has broken up the monopoly that institutions of higher ed have had on teacher licensure. The new rules encourage local school districts to create partnerships with proven national models such as Teach for America to find and license the best possible teacher candidates.

The board has put in stiff requirements around this new protocol. Programs must do licensure in tandem with a local school district. The new rules won't allow storefront, fly-by-night teacher licensure outfits to mushroom. Also, these programs have to focus on recruitment and selection--where they've proven their value really lies when compared to the self-selection inherent in the traditional prep route. (Teach for America selects around 10% of its applicants to become teachers.) Candidates must have content area knowledge. A strong mentorship and orientation program takes place before anyone goes into the classroom. And a new state law was also passed requiring the state board to publish an annual report card on all Tennessee teacher preparation programs, ensuring that providers of all stripes will be held to the same standard.

Not surprisingly, colleges of teacher education, including the national association, fought the board's decision to open teacher licensure to the free market, arguing that the change amounted to placing unprepared people in classrooms. Consider, though, that currently there are about 4,000 teachers in Tennessee teaching on an "alternative" teacher license, meaning that a school superintendent determined he or she needed to hire a teacher, found someone with a B.S. degree, gave them an alternative certificate and sent them back to a traditional teacher college program to pursue the needed degree. But they also put them to work in a Tennessee classroom immediately.

Even more focus is needed on improving teacher quality in Tennessee. For instance, state officials are currently considering tacking on an additional year to the teacher tenure effect date so that school systems can have a fuller composite of data with which to make tenure decisions. Such additional initiatives directed toward improving teacher quality should be welcomed. And hastened.