One participant sees nothing wrong with sharing the impact on student learning but saw little point in doing so. The problem is, there is little control over many variables. There needs to be established, realistic measures for assessing teachers. The discussion revealed that building partnerships between colleges of arts and sciences and teacher preparation, and between higher education and K-12 schools is crucial and it must be done, although politics may impede some progress. Improving the reputation of schools of education.
Education schools have bad reputations.
One participant felt that it's not the fault of the education school, but the principle that so many teachers are teaching out of their field. The perception on the Hill is that many teachers do not have strong academic content skills. What you expect of high school students you must expect of education students. The group seemed to agree that there must be the development or agreement of a set core knowledge in teacher preparation. It was noted that the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards have laid out criteria for teacher skills.