TREND Spring 2020 | Page 8

Changes to the Student Te As educators, we are concerned about the quality and quantity of applicants entering the field of education. Our members have often been catalysts for innovative solutions to the many challenges facing education. This is why we take an interest in the next generation of educators and why we strive to improve their experience and offer support as they transition from teacher candidate to classroom teacher. In 1986, education school deans from the top universities developed a critical report that attributed much of the blame for struggling public schools to the training that teachers were receiving in college. Research reminds us that although we spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours on teacher preparation courses, we do not have much evidence justifying some of those requirements in Colleges of Education. Nor do policymakers really know how to measure and define a successful teacher training program.