Teacher Training and Licensure Are Serious Problems; One Red State Has an Unserious Solution

A big reason why we see so many young Americans who can barely read and write but who are full of leftist ideas is that their teachers make them that way. Our teacher training (“schools of education”) is dominated by aggressive leftists and as a result, we have a teacher corps that does what they want. What can be done?

In today’s Martin Center article, Frederick M. Hess looks at a proposed solution in Oklahoma that turns out to be nothing more than MAGA posturing.

He writes:

The Problem: Teacher licensure has long been ineffectual and ideological. Heck, I was beating this drum a quarter-century ago — it was a part of what got me chased out of the University of Virginia, with the then-president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) threatening my job at the National Press Club for my heresy. Today, AACTE champions the “integral role educator preparation programs play in advancing scholarly work on Critical Race Theory,” while accreditation standards for teacher preparation require candidates to inventory “their personal biases” so as to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion.

So, we should want to keep out activist teachers. But how?

Oklahoma’s former superintendent of schools came up with the idea of having a test that would supposedly weed out the progressive activists. But it would only have applied to those seeking to teach in Oklahoma who were coming from California and New York, and the questions were poorly chosen. It isn’t a serious approach.

The right approach, Hess argues, lies in changing teacher licensure. He continues: “We need fewer licensure barriers to teaching. Busting up the teacher-preparation and licensure cartel would give school leaders more opportunity to hire would-be teachers based on experience and expertise rather than on paper credentials.”

Correct!