re:VISION
Dear education policymakers and stakeholders:
It is my pleasure to introduce you to the newest publication from the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy – re:VISION, known in its former incarnation as Blueprint. After several years, we decided that it was time to give Blueprint a facelift and new name, but you can expect the same quality of content and succinct, straight-forward, and balanced approach to issues geared specifically to policy leaders that characterize all of our publications.
This first issue of re:VISION addresses a critical factor in one of our country’s most important education goals – raising the level of student achievement. Of necessity, one of our longer reports, this issue discusses teacher preparation. While few would disagree that teachers need to be prepared, there is much debate about when, how, by whom, and for how long that preparation should be delivered. Should it occur in traditional schools of education? Are alternative programs superior? What about depth of content knowledge? How much time should be spent in a clinical setting?
Complicating this debate is a lack of consensus on what constitutes effective teaching, and how to accurately measure whether teachers are well-prepared for the classrooms of today.
The November 2011 edition of re:VISION reviews the challenges policy leaders face as they tackle these issues, shares what research tells us to date, and based on those, suggests possible courses of action.
We hope you find this publication useful to you in your efforts to improve education in your state.
Thank you.
Judith A. Rizzo
Executive Director and CEO
Hunt Institute