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A longstanding tradition criticizes education schools for their presumed vapid curriculum, out-of-touch faculty, irrelevance, and suffocating ideology. What is different at present is the enthusiasm for alternatives to university-based teacher preparation, as well as the increasing interest in holding teacher preparation programs accountable. I begin by briefly summarizing the criticisms of traditional university-based teacher preparation. I then describe a set of ideas--an ideology--that are central to new efforts to improve teacher education that have altered the landscape (Grossman & Loeb, 2008), including the need to involve social entrepreneurs, the use of data, and holding teacher education accountable in more public ways, including posting value-added scores for program graduates. I conclude with a discussion of unresolved issues that teacher educators all face.

Teacher quality is at the center of today's ardent discussions about the educational system, with calls for the reform and critical review of teacher development programs. There is no lack of activity in response to these calls. There are thousands of teacher education, induction, and professional programs in the U.S. which offer teachers a veritable carnival of options. But these options exist in a (non)system with little coherence or control. In this article, the authors outline the dimensions of the variability of teacher learning opportunities currently available, the unintended consequences of that variability, and the challenges faced by educators as we attempt to reform the system, respond to our critics, and offer teachers coherent learning experiences that lead to high quality teaching. (Contains 3 notes.)

In this article, the author discusses her varied reactions to Larry Cuban's most recent book, "How Scholars Trumped Teachers," which discusses 100 years of discussions resulting from the tension between research and teaching responsibilities of scholars at Stanford University. The article begins with a brief description of Cuban's analysis, which is followed by a description of the author's own experience trying to straddle the line between teaching and research. Finally, in the spirit of Cuban's analysis, she offers one incremental step toward re-balancing teaching and scholarship in the university.

The Next Generation Science Standards will require large-scale professional development (PD) for all science teachers. Existing research on effective teacher PD suggests factors that are associated with substantial changes in teacher knowledge and practice, as well as students' science achievement. But the complexity of the U.S. educational system continues to thwart the search for a straightforward answer to the question of how to support teachers. Interventions that take a systemic approach to reform hold promise for improving PD effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author explores seven "unanswered questions" concerning the preparation of future teacher educator-researchers. She considers five questions concerning the substance of doctoral preparation: what the new generation of teacher-researchers would need to know about teacher education, relevant disciplines, research methodologies, teaching in universities, and K-12 schooling. She then briefly discusses the need to theorize about how doctoral students learn to teach and conduct research. In essence, the author proposes a curriculum for her own learning as a mentor and advisor in a doctoral program for future teacher educator-researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]