Choices and consequences in the renewal of teacher education

On an almost daily basis, educators, policymakers, and the public call for reform or renewal of schools of education in general and initial teacher preparation in particular. In his call for renewal, Goodlad (1994) highlighted significant problems: the lack of curricular connection and communication across schools of education, liberal arts programs, and K-12 schools in preparing new teachers; the low status of teacher education on campuses and of initial teacher education in schools of education; and the lack of connection between renewal in teacher education and K-12 education. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996) cited inadequate time, fragmentation, uninspired teaching methods, superficial curriculum, and traditional views of schooling as problems requiring the attention of teacher educators. The Council for Basic Education (Rigden, 1996) added more problems to the list: inadequate and unsupervised school-based experiences, poor quality of students in teacher education programs, and the lack of experience of university faculty in schools. More recently, a report from the Public Agenda (Farkas & Johnson, 1997) described teacher education faculties as idealistic, detached from school realities, and unconcerned with the public's priorities for schools. Recommendations for how schools of education should change to address these deficiencies abound. There is growing convergence in the goals and principles recommended to guide renewal efforts: increase the academic and subject matter rigor of teacher education; forge new links among schools, schools of education, and schools of liberal arts; model exemplary pedagogy; adopt high standards for entry and exit in teacher education programs; improve clinical experiences; mentor new teachers; and organize teacher preparation around standards for both students and teachers. (See Goodlad, 1994; Holmes Group, 1990; Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium [INTASC], 1992; National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, 1996.) These goals and principles are important; many ultimately depend on internal organizational changes, on restructuring, reculturing, and retiming in schools of education (Rolheiser, 1996). However, although educational leaders have written much about the general processes of change in educational organizations, exchange of practical strategies and experiences still largely depends on informal professional communication. In this article, we share a perspective on the strategic choices and consequences in one school of education's effort to renew its goals and work. Because renewal is a complex and highly contextual process (Hoffman, Reed, & Rosenbluth, 1997), we do not expect our efforts to serve as a model to be copied elsewhere. However, we hope to stimulate an exchange of renewal strategies and help create a public repertoire of possibilities that might stimulate discussion and action in schools of education. In 1994, School of Education (SOE) faculty of the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD), in conjunction with partner school faculty, implemented Teacher Leaders for Tomorrow's Schools, a redesigned initial teacher education program. The program annually admits a cohort of 140 students with at least a bachelor's degree to a combined licensure/master's program. Most of the students (preservice teachers) choose the full-time schedule resulting in licensure at the end of 16 months and a master's degree at the end of the first year of teaching. Renewal in the initial teacher education program was motivated by a vision similar to those of current national reports. Change has occurred at several levels and has involved endless details. To conduct a retrospective study of the redesign and continuing evolvement of the program, we analyzed various documents over a 6-year period: position papers written by members of the redesign group, explanatory documents written for external audiences, agendas and meeting minutes from groups responsible for the initial teacher education program, annual documents from our NCATE files, program and partner school evaluation data and reports, and grant applications and reports. …