Under regulations recently promulgated by President Obama, all states will soon be called upon to improve their teacher preparation programs. Because many states will be starting from scratch, it’s likely they will look to Rhode Island for a road map.
Rhode Island has become one of the few national models for making teacher preparation more rigorous and selective. The state raised the bar for admission into teacher preparation, required new teachers to pass tests verifying that they have the necessary subject knowledge to be effective, and developed a system for connecting teacher effectiveness to teacher preparation programs and reporting publicly on their impact.
The above excerpt was originally published in Providence Journal.
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