Public Agrees on Poll That Better Teacher Preparation Is Needed
From the recent release of the PDK/Gallup poll on education, 81% of those surveyed thought that teachers should be required to pass board certification before teaching.
As The Atlantic noted, a national certification exam for teachers already exists, although it is not required for every teacher. The poll results started up a discussion among educators on how U.S. teacher preparation could be improved. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Council on Teacher Quality both agreed that better preparation for teachers was needed, but differed on whether more focus should be given to the accreditation exam or the teacher colleges.
The poll also showed that the American public favored increasing the length of practice teaching to one year and were opposed to linking a teacher’s evaluations to students’ test scores.
(Source: The Atlantic)