As a growing number of teacher educators and policy leaders continue to examine the most effective approaches to teacher preparation, Dean Cecelia Traugh invites education reformers to take a closer look at the teacher education model of Bank Street College in the recently published Education Week op-ed titled “Classroom Practice and the Influence of the Teacher Educator.”
In the piece, Dean Traugh advocates for a teacher education model that mixes coursework with extensive pre-service classroom practice. At the Bank Street Graduate School of Education, she writes, “the cornerstone to the College’s approach is a yearlong fieldwork requirement accompanied by rigorous coaching and mentoring and by a collaborative conference group made up of other students of teaching. This aspect of the program is designed to develop critical and creative thinkers who are prepared for and confident in real-world settings upon graduation.”
Citing a recent study by Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) titled “Teaching for a Changing World: The Graduates of Bank Street College of Education,” Dean Traugh notes evidence indicating the method consistently develops well-prepared teachers:
The effectiveness of this use of resources is cited by graduates in the SCOPE study when, for example, the researchers report that Bank Street alumni report higher confidence as compared to their peers in content preparation in science (18% higher), language and literacy (20% higher), and math (23% higher) and that Bank Street graduates enter and remain in the field at higher rates than the national average. In addition, they feel well prepared to meet the needs of diverse students and to develop a classroom environment that promotes social and emotional development.
A closer look at how Bank Street utilizes individual site-based supervision and the conference group format to help graduate students make meaning out of their classroom experiences can be found in Dean Traugh’s piece at Education Week.