How to get better teachers

by David Safier

The NY Times has an interesting op ed about creating a better crop of teachers. It's a suggestion for a new model of teacher preparation.

First, have our top colleges and universities "take education seriously" and offer top flight education programs. (Teach for America has demonstrated that the top universities are potential breeding grounds for teachers.)

Make the programs for the top students by requiring at least a 3.5 GPA to get in.

The program will have free tuition, and when the students begin teaching, they'll get a stipend for the first three years.

Include lots of real life teaching experience in the ed program, modeled loosely after medical schools where potential doctors spend lots of time with patients under the careful supervision of experienced physicians.

Give schools financial incentives to hire the new teachers in groups of 7 or more, to create "a robust community of promising professionals." (In the real world, hiring 7 new teachers at one school might not be realistic.)

This has a somewhat elitist ring to it -- the writer directs the teaching program at Williams College -- but it's a promising model. Unfortunately, right now our teaching pool draws from the middle of college students, or lower. I like the idea of encouraging our best and brightest who are interested in teaching to get involved by using a combination of financial and intellectual incentives, then see if they can make good things happen. If the program is successful, the model can expand elsewhere.

And now is a great time to try this out. Arne Duncan has serious money to spend on reform. This is an  inexpensive program compared to lots of things being proposed.