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online teacher credentials
Emily Feistritzer said when she founded TEACH-NOW in 2011, she wanted to train teachers who could piece of work in the digital historic period. Credit: Photo courtesy of TEACH-Now

When the global instructor preparation and credential program TEACH-At present launched iv years ago, Emily Feistritzer wanted to set teachers who would be comfortable using engineering in classrooms. Well-nigh 700 graduates later, the feedback from those who finished the ix-month program is then positive, TEACH-Now's leaders say, that they are planning a quick expansion.

The TEACH-At present program, which was founded in 2011 by Feistritzer, an pedagogy researcher and erstwhile president of the National Heart for Education Data, appear earlier this month that it plans to fix 10,000 new teachers worldwide over the adjacent five years and add a principal'due south caste rails. The program has hired Philip Schmidt, old dean of Western Governors University's teacher preparation program, to help with expansion efforts.

"The majority of [schools of education] are pretty dried and boring and don't really prepare teachers to piece of work in 21st century schools," Schmidt said. "There only is non a program online, or bricks-and-mortar, that combines these key elements that TEACH-NOW does."

Some supporters of traditional, university-led teacher preparation programs say that although in that location is room for comeback there, enquiry doesn't necessarily show that new teacher prep models are any more effective.

In a recent study, Kenneth M. Zeichner of the University of Washington and Hilary One thousand. Conklin of DePaul Academy said that more data is needed on the new plan models.

"Critics of college- and university-based teacher preparation have made many damaging claims about the programs that prepare near U.Southward. teachers," their report says, "while touting the new privately-financed and -run entrepreneurial programs that are designed to replace them." The authors add that supporters for these new programs oft cite research selectively, echo "claims based on non-existent or unvetted enquiry," or repeatedly cite "a small-scale or unrepresentative sample of research."

Related: New report reveals that teacher professional evolution is costly and ineffective

Feistritzer said her programme had examined surveys of schoolhouse leaders who work with TEACH-Now students and graduates, besides as internal performance rubrics and feedback from current and quondam students, to determine if the programme could successfully scale up. The programme started training teachers in 2013, after nearly two years of blueprint and planning, and says it has a 93 pct graduation rate. Graduates earn a teaching license from the Commune of Columbia Part of the State Superintendent of Education, which means graduates tin obtain teaching credentials in states that take reciprocity agreements with D.C.

"Nosotros really do want to be the game changer in the manufacture."

The expansion comes as enrollment is decreasing at many traditional teacher training colleges. Some schools, similar the Academy of Southern California, have ramped up their online presence in recent years to let students to earn Primary'southward degrees in education.

At the same time, in that location has been growing scrutiny of teacher training programs, many of which accept little data to prove how candidates fare in classrooms, and too have poor oversight from state and federal agencies. A July 2022 report by the United States Government Accountability Part found that some states do not appraise whether teacher preparation programs are low performing, even though that is required by federal constabulary.

Related: Teachers colleges struggle to blend technology into teacher grooming

online teacher credentials
Philip Schmidt joined TEACH-NOW after helping Western Governors University abound its teacher training program. Credit: Photo courtesy of TEACH-NOW

Feistritzer said TEACH-At present does not have systemic data still on how graduates perform in the classroom, mainly because graduates are in fifty countries and 42 states.

"If nosotros're going to exist measuring things like educatee achievement, not all countries care about that the way we do in the U.S.," Feistritzer said. Fifty-fifty if the data is collected, dissimilar measurement methods volition make it hard to compare data across states and countries, she said.

"Nosotros're paying attention to that, we're not obsessed with information technology," she added. "How [candidates] practice and the feedback they give united states of america is more important to united states at this bespeak in fourth dimension than any outside variable."

Although TEACH-At present's model offers traits like to traditional grooming programs, like a educatee pedagogy experience, the model also differs. Students take online classes with 15 or fewer students and work through a sequence of individual online modules, instead of taking several different classes at the same fourth dimension. Classroom observations, projects and school-based experiences, like tutoring, are integrated throughout the curriculum, and all aspiring teachers must consummate a 12-week module of student educational activity at the end of the certification programme.

"We really do want to exist the game changer in the manufacture," Feistritzer said. "We remember we've built a model for preparing teachers that is adaptable and we're open to partnerships."

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Jackie Mader supervises all photo and multimedia use, covers early childhood education and writes the early ed newsletter. In her ix years at Hechinger, she has covered a range of topics including teacher...