Teacher Quality: A Report on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers

摘要

This report is timely in light of recent concerns over the quality of our educational system and our teachers. Teachers professional preparation (as well as their working conditions) has been identified as fundamental to improving elementary and secondary education (National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future, 1996). At the core of educational reforms to raise standards, reshape curricula, and restructure the way schools operate is the call to reconceptualize the practice of teaching. Teachers are being asked to learn new methods of teaching, while at the same time they are facing the greater challenges of rapidly increasing technological changes and greater diversity in the classroom.