Report takes aim at Illinois teacher training programs

Report takes aim at Illinois teacher training programs

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A new report released on Tuesday says Illinois lawmakers and universities need to beef up standards for teacher training programs. The National Council on Teacher Quality says that more than half the teacher training programs it looked at in Illinois are poorly designed.

Robin Steans is with Advance Illinois, which commissioned the council’s report. She said not everyone is cut out to be a teacher.

“This is a hard job,” she said. “It requires very real, very hard-hitting preparation, and our kids are going to be the first and most important beneficiaries the better we get at that.”

The report recommends that the state lawmakers restructure the teacher certification system and that universities be more selective when admitting students.

Paul Zionts is the dean of DePaul’s School of Education, which the report says doesn’t have a well-designed early childhood program. He says the council didn’t look at how well his students do in the work place and relied too heavy on classroom syllabi when evaluating programs.

“If you were going to evaluate how good a restaurant is, you wouldn’t do it by just looking at their menu,” he says, adding that he does agree that training programs could always be better.