Arthur Levine and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation have partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a new program aimed to be an updated model for training teachers.

"'Instead of focusing on courses and credits students need to take,' says Levine, who's now head of the foundation, 'we're going to focus on the skills and knowledge they need to have to enter the classroom,'" according to NPR.

Levine wants to replace currently existing teacher training programs because he feels admission standards are too low as is the standard of quality of the programs in general because, he says, they are simply outdated.

He hopes that the new school, which he will head, will be the model that teacher training needs to best prepare teachers for the profession.

"The new approach to teacher preparation will focus on what Levine calls 'competencies,' not seat time. MIT, which doesn't have a school of education, will conduct the research to guide the new curriculum and develop technologies focused on digital learning," the article said.

The school, which will be called the Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning, is slated to open in June of 2017.

Levine seems to have many members of the education community behind his efforts, even the hard-to-convince.

"Sharon Robinson, head of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, says her group's 820 member institutions have always been wary of sweeping proposals, but this one is worth considering," the article said.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/17/2015