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Original URL: http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/5085.php
Teacher-quality effort earns D-
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
01.08.2004
By Sarah Garrecht Gassen
Arizona has received a D-minus in a national report on its efforts to improve
teacher quality because the state does not require enough student-teaching in
college programs.
The "Quality Counts" report, prepared by the Education Week newspaper and
released Wednesday, also said the state does not fund comprehensive professional
development for teachers.
The report evaluates the states' education systems. Arizona received a B for its
standards and accountability efforts, a B-minus for school climate, a D for the
adequacy of resources and a C-minus for equity in how education resources are
distributed.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne listed improving
professional development as a goal for 2004 in a speech he's been giving around
the state this week.
He said a plan to reduce the number of education-theory courses students must
take, while increasing the amount of practical classroom experience teachers
must have, will improve teacher quality and make it easier for college students
in other areas of study to also earn teaching credentials.
Horne said he will forward a plan to the Board of Education this spring to
reduce the number of theory-course hours required. The plan is now being formed
by a task force.
Arizona requires eight semester hours of student teaching as criteria for a
teaching certificate, but the state's three public universities require more
than that to graduate, said Bob Hendricks, associate dean of the University of
Arizona College of Education.
The UA requires 15 weeks of student-teaching and holds many of its courses in
public schools so the college students get hands-on experience, Hendricks said.
"To have the practical in isolation from the theoretical, or vice versa, is not
very powerful," Hendricks said. "The state requirements are the minimum, but
that doesn't reflect what people are doing beyond that."
* Contact reporter Sarah Garrecht Gassen at 573-4117 or at
sgassen@azstarnet.com.
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