Teachers for a New Era: Goals & Principles
The University of Washington is one of eleven institutions selected nationally to participate in the Teachers for a New Era program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and other foundations. Selection for the program reflects the strength of the UW’s existing commitment to teacher preparation and its reputation for innovation and quality education. The grant award is for $5 million over a five-year period.
The goals of the program are "to stimulate construction of excellent teacher education programs at selected colleges and universities" and to assure the nation "that colleges and universities are educating prospective teachers of the highest quality possible." Three primary design principles guide the TNE program nationally and at the UW, described in the TNE Prospectus as follows:
- First, a teacher education program should be guided by a respect for evidence, including attention to pupil learning gains accomplished under the tutelage of teachers who are graduates of the program.
- Second, faculty in the disciplines of the arts and sciences should be fully engaged in the education of prospective teachers, especially in the areas of subject matter understanding and general and liberal education.
- Finally, education should be understood as an academically taught clinical practice profession, requiring close cooperation between colleges of education and P-12 schools; master teachers as clinical faculty in the college of education; and residencies for beginning teachers during a two-year period of induction.
Other TNE design principles: These include: (1) attending to the role of culture in teaching and learning; (2) recruiting under-represented groups into teaching; (3) culturing pedagogical content knowledge in teachers; (4) preparing all teachers to help students master numeracy and literacy skills; (5) using classroom technology appropriately; (6) providing appropriate subject matter preparation for elementary and middle school teachers; and (7) facilitating the entry of "late deciders" into the teacher preparation program.
Underlying Ideas
The Teacher Development Continuum: Underlying the TNE design principles as well as UW’s TNE proposal is the idea that "teacher education" is not confined to the relatively brief time teachers spend in preservice preparation programs. Rather, teacher education begins early in life and continues until teachers retire. From this perspective, the university portion of teacher education begins when prospective teachers first enter college and continues through their formal teacher preparation program. The TNE funders, like other teacher advocates, argue that universities should continue to support graduates, particularly through the difficult and demanding first two years of teaching when many abandon the profession. Teachers in Washington are now required to continue their studies to achieve Professional Certification status by the end of their fifth year. The state also supports teachers in pursuing National Board Certification.
Teacher Preparation as a Campus-Wide Responsibility: To underscore that teacher preparation is a campus-wide responsibility, not just the responsibility of the COE, Vice-Provost Susan Jeffords is serving as Project Manager with final authority over TNE. This arrangement also recognizes that central University leadership is critical to the success of the project.
Collaboration of Education, Arts & Sciences, & P-12 faculty: To realize the design principles and the other goals of TNE and to ensure support to teachers across the continuum requires the collaboration of faculty from the College of Education (COE), the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), and P-12 partner schools. Although some faculty from these three settings have collaborated in the past, the TNE agenda requires more intensive and focused partnerships.