by Mary Beth Leone-Getten

For decades, Minnesota public schools consistently have ranked among the best in the nation. It is no coincidence that Minnesota also has among the highest standards for teacher preparation in the country. Yet while extensive research supports the connection between teacher quality and student achievement, arguments for and against professional teacher preparation continue to come from politicians and pundits alike. This has been true, not just during the current age of accountability, but during the college’s beginning years at the turn of the century.

Minnesota’s education pioneers

There are few buildings or streets in Minnesota named after him, yet no one has more to do with establishing Minnesota’s public school system than David Kiehle. Kiehle served in many educational posts before becoming state superintendent of public instruction in 1881 and an ex-officio member of the University Board of Regents. In 1893, Kiehle became a member of the University teaching faculty—the first and only faculty member in the Department of Pedagogy, the college’s precursor.

From the outset, Kiehle used his positions to advance the cause of teacher training and lobbied hard to establish a school of pedagogy. In a speech in 1900, Kiehle defined what he considered the University’s responsibility to teachers: “The University should offer the same professional preparation in education as it does in medicine, law, and agriculture.” While Kiehle’s goals apparently conflicted with his contemporaries—he was removed from his post in 1902—he successfully planted the seeds for what was to become the mission of the College of Education only three years later. When the college was created in 1905, faculty elsewhere in the University doubted that professional training for public school educators was necessary. Many believed it was an unworthy activity for an institution of higher education.

In 1915, Lotus Delta Coffman became dean of the college. Previously, Coffman had served as supervisor of a teacher training school, a job that cemented his position that professional teacher training in U.S. universities was terribly inadequate. With Coffman at the helm, and soon to be University president, the college was on the road to create a program with some of the highest standards for teacher preparation in the nation.

100 years later:
How the college prepares teachers

Today in the college, teacher preparation standards are determined by the Council on Teacher Education (CTE). The council is responsible for the ongoing development of teacher education.

According to Mary Bents, associate dean for undergraduate and professional programs, the college is closely tied to Minnesota schools and much of what is taught comes from school leaders’ suggestions of what they want teachers to know. The program includes ample time in Minnesota classrooms to observe and practice theory in action.

“Minnesota is held up as one of a few exemplar states for teacher preparation,” notes assistant professor Misty Sato. “We know there is a direct correlation between teaching and student learning,” Bents says, “and Minnesota has always drawn a line saying you have to know both your content, and how to teach it.”

Roots of the current debate

While the first part of the 1900s—especially the post-World War II population boom—saw a tremendous growth in students and schools as well as a growing belief in the value of public education for all children and support for that education to continue through age 18, the last 40 years of educational policy have been increasingly framed by an agenda that argues a need to “fix” public education, which has brought arguments about teacher preparation back into focus.

In part the sense of failure of the public schools was sparked by the U.S.S.R. launch of Sputnik and a fear that a communist country was going to beat the U.S. in the space race. Suddenly science and math programs were being beefed up and the nation began to regularly compare its school system and student test scores with those of other countries.

In 1983, the federal government released “A Nation at Risk,” a report that claimed America’s educational system was failing to keep pace with the rest of the world. The report created a panic about the state of education and spawned many movements—both for and against teacher education and professionalism.

To prepare or not to prepare

Today two broad schools of thought exist about teacher preparation. One group advocates high standards for admission to teacher training programs, rigorous teacher preparation before certification, and lifelong professional development, making teaching a profession like law or medicine. Organizations in this camp are based on the central belief that knowing how to teach is equally important as knowing the subject matter being taught.

The other approach, often associated with Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, argues against certification as we know it, saying that the process dissuades energetic, talented individuals who have many attractive professional alternatives and are not willing to endure the “hoops and hurdles” of certification. Advocates of this approach argue that there is little proof that certified teachers serve students better than uncertified ones.

Patricia Avery, professor of curriculum and instruction and chair of CTE , says that many people think that because they have gone through school as a student, they know how to teach simply by having participated in a classroom. “Teaching,” says Avery, “is planning learning experiences in a sequenced fashion that take different turns depending upon how learners respond—this is not something you just pick up.”

Neither side disputes that teachers need to have a mastery of their content area. Those who advocate “short cuts” to the classroom maintain that effective teachers need only strong content-area knowledge and strong verbal ability, both of which can easily be tested. But advocates for teacher preparation say that the “how to teach” knowledge, especially in America’s increasingly diverse classrooms, is equally important.

Do we need more teachers?

The argument for quick certification often is based on the idea that teacher shortages necessitate a more efficient and quick route to the classroom. They point to the states (not including Minnesota) that have been forced to issue record numbers of emergency credentials, especially in math and science areas. This trend has quickened under the definition of “highly qualified” teachers in the No Child Left Behind federal legislation.

There are places where the need for more teachers is chronic. While shortages have been attributed to student population growth and teacher retirements, and sometimes are, more and more research indicates that teacher shortages are largely caused by job turnover. Because research shows that teachers who are better prepared will stay in the classroom longer, teacher shortages can be seen as an argument that supports more extensive preparation for teachers, not less, and also emphasizes the need for mentoring and continuing professional development, especially for teachers in their first three to five years on the job.

In the debate over how well little-trained teachers might fare in the classroom, Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford professor and national expert on teacher training, puts it this way, “Think about how hard it is to manage a two-hour birthday party for 30 kids, and then imagine what you need to do to actually accomplish learning goals with [that number of] kids over a long period of time—then you can begin to get a glimpse of how much skill is needed for teaching.”

For the future of teacher preparation, in addition to keeping standards high, Bents sees a real necessity to focus on continuing professional development. “The future success of our students will rest on how we, as schools, states, and nation, support teachers, regardless of how they were prepared, to stay in the classroom.”

Is teaching a genuine profession?

In many ways, public opinion about the status of teachers hasn’t improved much since faculty at the University resisted the idea of a college of education and the teaching profession still doesn’t come close to commanding the respect afforded the medical and legal professions.

In Misty Sato’s view, teaching took a big step toward professionalism in 1986 with the formation of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, an organization established and monitored by educators, who codify teaching knowledge into National Board Exams for teacher certification—a rigorous preparation process and assessment that allows teachers to demonstrate mastery of a body of knowledge in specific subject areas as well as their knowledge of the learning process and demonstration of classroom skills.

Despite the bad press that education sometimes gets, more people than ever are applying to increasingly selective teacher preparation programs at American colleges and universities. While the absence of status might not make teaching a true profession in the eyes of some, many, if not all, of those who toil in classrooms have no doubt their chosen profession is among the most important, and far reaching, in the world.