On October 22, 2009, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered a speech about teacher preparation that many say was a wake-up call for those in education. Duncan mentions in his speech “that many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom.”
Duncan discusses three major challenges in education that make the need to improve teacher preparation programs more important than ever. He mentions that the education that Americans received in the past just will no longer be acceptable and that every child should be receiving the same quality education, although many are not. He also mentions that the dropout rate for high school students is too high and that “nearly 30 percent of our students today drop out or fail to complete high school on time—that is 1.2 million kids a year. Barely 60 percent of African-American and Latino students graduate on time—and in many cities, half or more of low-income teens drop out of school.”
For more information about Duncan’s speech, visit: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html and let NSSEA know your thoughts.
