Dr.
Virginia Pilato, Director, Teacher Quality;
Branch
Chief, Program Approval and Assessment Branch, MSDE
We're really coming together to move teacher education reform forward in ways we have never done before. Maryland views professional development schools as the very best way to prepare teachers and to join schools and universities. At the heart of reform in Maryland is our view that all children can learn, and can learn rigorous content. All of our students K-12, deserve and must have caring, qualified, competent teachers who must grow in their profession.
To this commitment to children, we now link teacher education reform. We call the reform in Maryland the Redesign of Teacher Education. We emphasize strong academic background for our new teachers and our practicing teachers as they continue to grow professionally, and we also emphasize for our teacher candidates yearlong internships in professional development schools.
The
heart of the Redesign of Teacher Education is that teachers should be very well
prepared to teach Maryland students. In fact, they should be more like second
and third-year teachers when they complete their programs than the
traditionally prepared teachers in short-term student teacher placements. So we
now integrate school reform and teacher education reform through professional
development schools.
Our
statewide professional development school network is expanding with the goal in
sight now of preparing all teacher candidates in yearlong internships in
professional development schools. Professional development school performance
is being tied to state program approval, which is directly linked to Title II
institutional assessment. There is a strong accountability arm of our PDS
movement in Maryland. We provide some funding and support, and we link the
initiative to state and federal accountability systems.
Improvements
in teacher education in Maryland are earning accolades primarily through the
PDS initiative.
(Comments taken from
NCATE PDS Press Conference delivered Tuesday, October 16, 2001.)