Teacher Education at CWU

I know that many of the teachers I work with share my sentiments about their preparation to enter this field: it was inadequate. In defense of teacher ed programs, however, I recognize the impossibility to train every teacher for every possible classroom situation. Meanwhile, in many states, a higher ed board sets the number of hours and the course sequence required. Universities have their hands tied if they're limited by these.

The Wenatchee World is reporting that Central Washington University has failed to meet the accreditation standards for two of its educator preparation programs. The reasons are not made clear until the end of the article, where the deficiencies are listed as failing "to meet elements of the accountability standards -- particularly areas relating to maintaining an assessment system for the program and using data for program improvement."

The university plans to appeal this decision. Considering that CWU makes 400 new certificated teachers available to schools each year, the ability for them to continue their programs is vital to districts throughout the state of Washington. Let's hope they get their act together soon.