Washington—November 25, 2014—Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) released the following statement from Policy Director Charles Barone applauding the U.S. Department of Education’s release of its draft plan to collect better data on the performance of teacher preparation programs and to set higher standards for the federal TEACH scholarships.
“This an important first step toward overhauling the way the United States prepares teachers and raising the status and prestige of the teaching profession.
“In this era of ever-increasing international competition and higher academic standards, substandard teacher training is just as unfair to our nation’s educators as it is to our students.
“The failure, over the course of decades, to remedy deficiencies in teacher training by those institutions whose job it is to select and prepare teachers constitutes educational negligence of the highest order. The U.S. Department of Education is stepping in because educational institutions have repeatedly abdicated their responsibility to set and enforce high standards for the teaching profession.
“Once states set benchmarks that draw on newly available data we should give schools appropriate time to meet them. But instead of condoning wasteful practices indefinitely, as in the past, those responsible for overseeing federal funds must issue an ultimatum: shape up or lose subsidies.
“Every field with broad social importance at some point requires and undergoes a transformation to adapt to new societal expectations and advances in knowledge. Modernization leads to qualitatively different approaches to training and pay, enhancing the prestige of the profession. That time has now come for teaching.
“We look forward to reviewing the draft regulations over the coming days and working with the Department to improve and, ultimately, implement them.”