Vision of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

At the Education Policy Forum * on November 4, 2005, Sharon Robinson, Executive Director and President of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) **, described the AACTE vision. The vision is based upon consensus, consensus on what we know about teaching and applying that consensus to practice, with teachers as consumers of research.

Robinson outlined four strategic elements of the vision:

1) Applying a consensus process to unify the AACTE community and advocate “what we know”;
2) Contributing to federal and state policy;
3) Applying consensus to improve teacher education (or education workforce development); and
4) Assuring diversity (in teaching) so that all kids have the opportunity to learn.

Additionally, Robinson described the “clinical development of teachers,” which resembles the professional development model for medical practitioners. Such a clinical development model for teachers would include college training, an internship, and a residency, or similar levels of training. In short, teachers would be expected to maintain mastery in the content areas in which they teach and instill analytic skills in their students.

The Hamilton Fish Institute recognizes a substantial opportunity for this clinical model: teachers might also receive additional readiness training in classroom management and other intervention and prevention strategies, while acquiring competencies in anger management, conflict resolution, and social skills training for their students through internships and residencies in order to make schools safer.

* The Education Policy Forum is organized and presented monthly at the U.S. Library of Congress by the Institute for Educational Leadership (http://www.iel.org) and the American Educational Research Association (http://www.aera.net).

** The AACTE (http://www.aacte.org/) is a national voluntary organization of colleges and universities that prepare the nation's teachers and other educational personnel. As many as 75 percent of teachers complete teacher preparation programs under the organizational auspices of the AACTE.

Page Updated: November 07, 2005