School District Investment in the Preparation and Induction of Student Teachers

Abstract

There has been increasing negative attention cast on the preparation of our Nation's teachers given the rise in accountability and evaluation measures focused on students and their teachers. Efforts presume that an increased evidence-based education system will solve the problems facing education (Cochran-Smith, 2006). Conversations and subsequent policy development have targeted university teacher preparation programs with goals of improving candidate preparedness and effectiveness in the classroom in order to raise student achievement. In this paper I instead argue that a central problem with teacher preparation programs are issues embedded within a larger dilemma; the fragmentation and lack of programmatic structure between university preparation programs and school districts. I suggest that school districts should be the driving force in developing more integrative approaches to teacher preparation by investing in the preparation and induction of student teachers into the career. However, to realize this opportunity districts must reimagine their roles and responsibilities in the student-teaching preparation process. This paper will suggest and provide organizational structures, frameworks and tools to support school districts in looking at the investment beyond the initial student teaching experience to align practices with induction and orientation practices in order to prepare, hire and retain more highly qualified teachers.