He stood before my news writing class, staring at us novices and clutching that ever-present can of Orange Crush like some kind of hand grenade. Then he barked out a question:
“Hardy! Whatcha got?”
This was News Writing 101 or something like that. I was a grad student in journalism, and Mr. K’s class was as close as I was going to get to a real newsroom for the next few months. My “beat” was Boston City Council.
“Well, Mr. K,” I replied, trying not to sound too meek. “The city council has had it with the mayor. He’s arrogant. He’s aloof. He won’t meet with them. And if he doesn’t agree to …”
“Slug it: ‘Feud!’” Mr. K thundered, before turning to the next student: “Williams! Whatcha got?”
Mr. K was a great teacher and a wonderful if slightly intimidating friend. The booming voice and Orange Crush were just an act, something to try to simulate the kind of pressure we’d be under in our first jobs. But while Mr. K’s class was easily the best I had in journalism school, it didn’t come close to teaching me what I would learn in about three weeks of working for a daily newspaper.
I thought of my journalism training after learning that NCATE (the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) is changing the way it accredits teacher colleges, most notably by strengthening the student teaching experience and providing more hands-on experience in the classroom.
Its report, Meeting Urgent National Needs in P-12 Education, was released last week.
“The new approaches are designed to ensure that teacher education is relevant to classrooms of the 21st century,” the report says. “They push teacher education programs to close the gap between theory and practice, coursework and classroom, preparation and induction. In the past, accreditation wrapped clinical experience around coursework. The new approach will reverse the priority, encouraging institutions to place teacher candidates in more robust clinical experiences, and wrap coursework around clinical practice.”
That’s good news for school districts that depend on local education colleges for many of their new hires. And while some critics wonder why it took NCATE so long to make these changes after all, the issue of inadequate clinical training has been around for years it’s good the organization has acknowledged the problem and is taking what look like bold steps to address it.
Mr. K, I’m sure, would approve.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
