Neoliberalism has brought fundamental changes to the way schools of education prepare professional educators; among them is the pressure for schools of education to produce fast-track teacher preparation programs that bypass traditional requirements. Due to the privatization of public education, a new market has emerged to train educators and…

Schools of education have seen many changes over the last 100 years (Labaree 2004). More recent modifications have included the slow and steady elimination of the social foundations of education in lieu of a more direct attention to teacher skills and basic training. The increased focus on the so-called "nuts and bolts" of teacher…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to give teachers a voice to express their self-efficacy beliefs, their opinions about the content and the effectiveness of their teacher preparation programs to facilitate student learning, and to hear their suggestions for improving teacher education to enable future educators to…

The former president of Teachers College, Columbia University, Arthur Levine questioned the connection between what one learns in pre-service teacher education programs and what one does as a teacher. From a meta-analysis of several studies he found that: A shockingly low percentage of principals said that their teachers were very or moderately…

In what had been billed as a major speech on teacher education, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week reiterated concerns about the quality of the schools that produce a majority of the nation's teachers. But some observers said that by praising several new teacher-preparation initiatives, he struck a more conciliatory tone toward the…

Reform of teacher preparation is once again in the air. In his first major speech about education, President Obama said that "recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers" will be one of the new administration's top priorities. The priorities set forth in the stimulus package, as well as the Congressional debates about the…

In schools across the country, many students who consistently score below their white peers on state standardized tests are English language learners (ELLs). Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the reauthorized ESEA under President Obama, all 50 states are and will be required to have English language proficiency (ELP) standards and state…

As 48 states charge ahead with plans to adopt common academic standards, the U.S. Department of Education will enlist experts and the public to help design a $350 million competition for the next step: the development of common tests. In coming weeks, top Education Department officials will travel to Atlanta, Boston, and Denver for a series of…

In this investigation, 55 of the 72 Suffolk County public schools were analyzed using archival data gleaned from the New York State Education Department's BEDS report for the years 2000 to 2005. Three primary research questions were used to determine if the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 had an impact on four ethnic groups, wealth of different…

Individuals are living, learning, and teaching by questioning how to address race in a society that consistently prefers to see itself as colorblind, a society claiming to seek a "post-racial" existence. This edited volume offers evidence of the evolving significance of race from a diverse group of male and female contributors…

Schools function primarily on two basic principles. The first focuses on the education of students in cognitive skills, and the second, on the education of students in the social skills. Both are necessary to function successfully within society, the workforce, and the political framework of the country (Fullan, 1993). Although these principles…

The American K-12 education system is under fire--and schools of education are no exception. Even the U.S. Secretary of Education and the presidents and deans of many teachers colleges and education schools themselves number among the critics. Alternative certification programs are blossoming in every corner of the land, competing for the bread…

One controversial aspect of No Child Left Behind is the highly qualified provision. The 2001 act required that teachers of core academic subjects be highly qualified by 2006 or school districts would lose federal funding. Virginia districts are still scrambling to hire qualified teachers. Although the federal government has modified the 2006…

In this article, the author reflects on his last 15 years of experience as an environmental education researcher and teacher education faculty member. Through the personal reflections of narrative inquiry, he observes and interprets the changes he has witnessed and participated in at the state, university, college, and department level, and also…

A school principal's job has never been tougher. The accountability movement--culminating with the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2001--has put pressure on principals to improve student performance, resulting in school leaders' transitioning from a more administrative role to becoming more heavily involved in assessment, instruction,…