From the Indiana Dept of Education Strategic Plan dated Feb 25, 2009:
"Improve instructional quality and enhance school governance and leadership...
- Reform and deregulate existing licensing standards to encourage the appropriate use of subject matter experts in the classroom and in administrative positions."
Questions abound as to what the proposal to "deregulate" teacher certification might mean for education in Indiana. Quoted numerous times in the campaign as being against accreditation for teacaher training programs, new Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett seems out to transfer this power to the districts. Given current financial constraints one wonders what type of system the districts would be able to adopt (or if they even want this power/responsibility). More troubling is the inclusion of the "subject matter experts" in the second half of the statement. One can only assume here that this means cutting out Schools of Education and letting business schools train administrators, history departments train social studies teachers, etc..., ignoring the research base on what we know about effective teaching practices.
I'm hoping there are some comments out there as this is surely an attack on teacher education (yet again) and a significant step backward for the State of Indiana. There will be more to come...
“If you want to fix it, declare it broken”...this isn't about the research (but you better have it if you want to defend programs)
Posted by: RH | March 11, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Oh, Rob...there are so many setbacks coming, I don't even know where to begin. This is honestly not coming from a bitter place, but rather one of sadness - sadness for what the effect of partisan politics will be on Indiana's children. As I've said before, it's truly a time for us to be proactive, if we can figure out what that means.
Posted by: Adriana | March 25, 2009 at 07:55 PM