President's Blog

Notes from MACTE's President

admin — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:31:37 -0500

Dr. Maureen Prenn, MACTE President
Acting Dean
College of Education
Minnesota State University, Mankato

NCATE and TEAC Accreditation

assistant — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:50:46 -0400

We know that the current accreditation systems for teacher education are not working the way they should. Many of you have commented about the problems with accreditation, including large amounts of people and financial resources devoted to preparation instead of improving our programs, inconsistent feedback and evaluation from reviewers, two competing systems, and a lack of a clear reporting process to policy makers. AACTE has been instrumental in bringing leaders from NCATE and TEAC together to address these issues. The first concrete step in moving forward was announced this week. A joint NCATE/TEAC Design Team examining multiple pathways to accreditation is being established. While the process may take a couple of years to fully develop, it is good news for all of us. Below is a short version of an announcement from the NCATE website.

Washington , DC -- Dr. Frank B. Murray, President of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council, and Dr. Arthur E. Wise, outgoing president of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, today jointly announced the unanimous agreement of their respective governing boards to work together on the development of an accreditation system for educator preparation that has multiple pathways to accreditation. Both agencies currently perform the accreditation function independently of each other. In particular, both boards authorized the appointment of a joint NCATE/TEAC Design Team to develop a specific proposal for an accreditation system with multiple pathways to accreditation. See http://www.ncate.org/public/063008_NCATE_TEAC.asp. for more details.

New Year’s Resolutions for Teacher Education

assistant — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:08:53 -0500

With the New Year comes a time for thinking about what we want to accomplish. For MACTE we want to continue in our role as advocates for highly quality, standards-based preparation for all teachers. We believe that every student deserves a well-prepared teacher. That is not new. If we could make New Year’s resolutions for the state, what would we wish for?

First, we would see fewer special permissions granted by the Board of Teaching. Some of these are variances for teachers who are teaching out of their field. Many of them are for community experts who hold no teaching license nor special expertise. These people are often teaching students with special needs, who deserve teachers with the most expertise rather than none.

Second, we would grant state funding for teacher candidates of color to encourage more students of color to choose teaching and make higher education affordable. Our P-12 students need to see teachers who look like them and fully understand their needs. This is part of our legislative agenda for this session.

Third, we would require and fund teacher induction and mentoring. If Minnesota is truly to improve the retention rate of new teachers as well as the effectiveness of their teaching, new teachers need the support of mentors and a high quality induction experience. The national data on this clearly supports the value that comes with these programs. This is also part of our legislative agenda for this session.

Have I piqued your interest? Please join us in for the MACTE Day at the Capitol on February 27th. Go to Legislative Updates for more information about this event. We hope to see you there

Time for MTQM Data Entry

President — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:39:26 -0400

I want to invite you and your institution to participate in a special database on the MACTE website. The Measures of Teacher Quality in Minnesota (MTQM) has two functions. The first serves as a search mechanism for potential students looking for teacher preparation programs. This allows the public to look for programs in various formats that meet their needs. The second function was developed to provide data related to indicators of quality in teacher preparation. Individual institutions report their data which is then pooled for a general report about the state of teacher education in Minnesota. Institutions can compare their data on items like admission requirements to the mean of institutions in the state. MTQM has been used in reporting about our programs to the legislature in the past. I urge you to participate in this data entry.

Wrong Direction for Minnesota

President — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:57:29 -0400

Earlier this month the Minnesota Board of Teaching passed a resolution to allow science teachers to add on another field of science to their license by taking the Praxis test. There was no discussion, although the board did hear an eloquent statement from a chemistry professor from Hamline about the need for teachers and their students to have stronger content knowledge. I think we can all agree that strong content knowledge along with pedagogical skill is important for teachers. Even though these teachers adding new science fields will be “highly qualified” technically, they will not have strong content and pedagogical knowledge. So why was this decision made? It was primarily designed to solve the needs of small, rural schools in staffing. But ease of staffing does not mean that the teachers licensed by a test will be effective. With the renewed focus on the importance of content knowledge in our increasingly competitive world, this decision sends Minnesota in the wrong direction.

Welcome to the New MACTE Website

President — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:36:25 -0400

Welcome to our new MACTE website! I think you will find it easy to navigate and find the information you need. Features you have come to rely on like MTQM and event information are here along with new features that will keep you up to date on issues related to preparation of teachers. We in teacher education continue to meet the challenge of preparing educators who can assist all learners in gaining the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in our fast-paced, global society. I hope you will check with us regularly for the latest on state-wide issues related to teacher education.