(From a report of the SB 1422 Advisory Panel on Teacher
Education, Induction and Certification for the 21st Century)

Fall, 1997

• Teachers come into the profession from a variety of life circumstances, these recommendations of the Panel reflect their desire to create a flexible system that is able to accommodate "early deciders" who choose teaching as a profession while still in college;

• Integrated programs should provide opportunities for candidates to engage in professional preparation while completing a baccalaureate degree in a non-Education major. These programs should provide opportunities for intensive field experience early in the undergraduate sequence. Undergraduate programs that combine early field experiences with integration of subject matter and professional preparation should be encouraged by all means available. The Commission should require subject-matter departments and departments of education within institutions of postsecondary education to collaborate with each other and with local schools in reinvigorating such programs.

• Institutions of postsecondary education should facilitate careers in teaching by offering undergraduate coursework (e.g., minors in education) that form linkages and connections with professional preparation programs. Future teachers should have early experiences in schools serving diverse communities early in their undergraduate sequence.

• Integrated teacher preparation programs shall submit documentation of collaboration with joint signatures of the academic officials of the postsecondary institutions and the local school district in which students will be receiving early clinical experiences. Factors to consider shall include evidence that pedagogical issues are well integrated with subject-matter coursework, programs provide advisement about subject-matter requirements about credentials, and subject-matter and education departments take joint responsibility for program development and implementation. Additionally, the college or university shall demonstrate that integrated programs will receive adequate resources, including funding, to support advising, supervision, and involvement of all faculty contributing to the program. They shall provide evidence that include the following elements:

  1. Early experiences in public school classrooms that include observation, tutoring, lessons, curriculum development, and the integration of technology;
  2. Collaborative admissions procedures, portfolio development and common outcomes;
  3. Syllabi of those courses that are key in providing prospective teachers with subject matter background for teaching shall include clear references to how the coursework provides opportunities to develop subject specific teaching skills;
  4. Needs of the public schools are assessed and programs are revised according to the assessment;
  5. Instructors involved with the pedagogical preparation of candidates in the program can produce clear evidence of public school work and collaboration;
  6. Candidates can describe their early clinical experiences and the benefits of early involvement with teachers, students, classrooms, and parents.

• The collaboration standard for professional programs will address the following issues:

  1. Integrated programs should provide documentation of collaborative planning and implementation of curriculum among subject matter disciplines and education;
  2. Integrated programs must delineate how subject matter faculty provide teacher education candidates with opportunities to integrate subject matter content with classroom experiences and development of teaching skills;
  3. Integrated programs shall demonstrate how community colleges are included within the collaboration of teacher education;
  4. Post-baccalaureate preparation programs shall document within-campus collaboration between the education unit and the subject matter departments which could take the form of joint development of subjects/methods classes such as reading, math and science methods;
  5. All programs submitted by approved entities other than institutions of postsecondary education shall include how professors in interdisciplinary subjects and methodology are collaborating in order to provide candidates with an integrated program;
  6. Collaboration among and between teacher preparation programs shall include specific agreements pertaining to on-campus collaboration among subject matter and teacher education faculty.