Reform Advocates Criticize Teacher Preparation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Oct 27, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dayna Worchel, dworchel@longview-news.com, Longview News

Longview, TX – Provocative dialogue was delivered as promised Thursday at an education reform presentation at First Baptist Church.

Jim Windham, founder and president of the Houston-based Texas Institute for Education Reform, expressed the need to make changes in Texas public schools, which he said would produce students more capable of functioning in today's global workforce.

Chief among Windham's concerns is the way in which teachers are prepared for the profession. "We need to examine the whole food chain from top to bottom and look at the way teachers are hired, trained, certified and evaluated, and the professional development they receive," Windham said.

"We also need to know how to identify ineffective educators and work with them so they get the training they need," he said. If extra training doesn't improve their effectiveness, Windham said they should be dismissed.

"We have many folks who shouldn't be in this business," he said.

Windham thinks traditional teacher preparation programs are too disconnected from the community, and alternative ways to prepare teachers for the profession are warranted. "Flowers bloom in many different ways," he said.

Sherilyn Emberton, dean of the school of education at LeTourneau University, took issue with Windham's criticisms about teacher education and public schools in general. "We are not disconnected from our community at all, and you cannot make such a blanket statement," Emberton told Windham.

With branches in Tyler, Dallas, Houston, Bedford and Austin, LeTourneau offers teacher certification programs for working adults, as well as a traditional teacher preparation program. Emberton said the university produced 374 newly certified teachers in the 2005-06 school year, and had produced roughly that many per year for the past three years.

"I don't want to stigmatize every educator and institution," Windham said. "There are islands of excellence out there."

Amy Allen, principal of St. Mary's Catholic School in Longview, thought it was time to try something different in education.

"Everyone feels so passionately about these issues, but change now is not an indictment of the past," she said. "If you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to get the same results you've always gotten."

The objective of the nonprofit Texas Institute for Reform Education is to graduate every child from high school fully prepared for higher education or for the 21st century workplace, as well as fostering responsible citizenship.

Windham said much of the organization's support comes from his own pocket, and from his board of directors who head up a variety of different companies, including law firms, financial services companies and a construction company.