Equitable access to high-quality instruction is incredibly important in high-needs and persistently low-achieving schools, where teachers are disproportionately inexperienced and students can benefit the most from having a skilled teacher. Perhaps this is why several recent reports have focused on the need for more and better clinical preparation for teachers.
Publications by Hope Street Group and National Center for Teacher Residenciesdemonstrate that teachers want better clinical preparation – particularly to prepare them to work in high-needs schools – and that there is great interest from traditional teacher preparation programs in expanding clinically oriented teacher preparation. Both organizations call for more investment in clinical preparation for teachers as a way to reduce inequality and produce more highly skilled teachers for the students who need them most.