Entrepreneur Offers Alternative Teacher Training
Randy Best, a Dallas investor and founder of the American College of Education, wants to revolutionize how teachers are trained in the United States, and he plans to work with school districts across the country to do it.
Randy Best, a Dallas investor and founder of the American College of Education, wants to revolutionize how teachers are trained in the United States, and he plans to work with school districts across the country to do it.
Arthur Levine, the longtime president of Columbia University's Teachers College, who will retire this month, says that charges of incompetence at colleges of education are easier to make than to prove. Certainly there are some weak colleges, he says, but it is not clear that the alternatives popping up are any better."The problem with education schools is we don't know the impact of teacher education on the performance of students in the classroom," says Mr. Levine, who in recent years has been a vocal critic of teacher education in the United States. And new colleges, like the American College of Education, do not have that data either, he says.
This article, written by Elyse Ashburn, appeared in the July 14th, 2006 publication of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Published Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2006