Some observers believe the teaching profession should be better regulated by stiffening certification requirements and demanding better performance on the Praxis II test, which all prospective teachers take to be licensed. But foes of increased regulation argue that it doesn't improve teachers, just reduces their number. Harvard economist Richard Murnane agreed. The issue is, how do you create the right policy to create good training. The S.C. Commission on Higher Education requires schools of education to be accredited.
Officials believe that translates into better student achievement.
Yet accreditation is no guarantee of quality. At S.C. State University, for example, an accredited school, fewer than 20 percent of students have SAT scores above 1,000 and fewer than half have a 3.0 GPA from high school. One area of agreement is the belief that prospective teachers should spend more time in classrooms. Ruth Cohen, principal of Lambs Elementary, advocates that student teaching last a full school year. Now, she said, students miss key moments in school life - from the preparation of the classrooms and setting up transportation to the closing of the classrooms, decisions over whether to send children to summer school, meetings with parents over retentions.