Professors in Madison, Wisconsin are in agreement that the focus of public education reform should be providing more professional training for teachers, according to The Cap Times.

"Not only are more skills and a deeper understanding of teaching methods needed to reach students with increasingly diverse needs, but a nuanced grasp of the profession is necessary to envision what education should be in the 21st century," Jed Hopkins, associate professor in the School of Education at Edgewood College, said according to the article.

A proposal in Wisconsin's legislature that would do away with the requirement of teachers to complete an approved teacher preparation program, giving any individual with a Bachelor's degree in core subject areas the ability to get a teaching license.

The recent push in the state's capital for appropriate training for teachers is in response to this proposal; a formal petition against it has 37,000 signatures.

"Learning how to teach is a complicated process that includes becoming aware of one’s own acculturation and learning the role of culture in teaching, said Fran Johnson, director of an Edgewood graduate school program that trains secondary school teachers," the article said.

The professors interviewed agree that by ignoring the importance of teacher training and development will negatively affect public school equity.

UW-Madison education student Briana "Schwabenbauer told BustEd Pencils that reducing teacher training required to licensing would end up with unqualified teachers in the classrooms of the neediest students, threatening their 'liberty to learn.'"

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/12/2015