New Study: Teacher Preparation Programs Fail to Ensure that Student Teaching, the Most Formative Experience of a Teacher's Preparation, Lives Up to Its Billing

First-ever quantitative look at student teaching practices in the United States finds that 75% of higher education institutions exert too little control over their student teaching programs, leaving much of their quality to chance; Low quality of programs is also due to institutions flooding schools

 2011

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Today, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonpartisan research and advocacy group, released a national study that provides the most comprehensive review of student teaching arrangements ever done, and the findings reveal significant problems in the delivery of this critical element of teacher training.

The principal focus of the study, entitled Student Teaching in the United States, was to ascertain the institutional policies and practices regarding selection of the "cooperating teacher" -- the classroom teacher whose job it is to mentor the student teacher. 

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