Preparing the “Standardized Teacher”: The Effects of Accountability on Teacher Education

Authors

  • Kelsy Krise University of Toledo

Keywords:

Teacher education, teacher performance assessment, standardization, accountability

Abstract

Significant attention has been brought to the effects standards and accountability has on P-12 students.   Not as much focus has been placed on the implications these reforms have on teacher education.  It appears that both for-profit and nonprofit corporations have taken advantage of new policies and have found a way to penetrate the education system by responding to the demands of standards and accountability.  Corporations who are far removed from the education institution produce pre-service teacher evaluations.  An attempt for institutions to align their teacher education program with the required evaluation system has resulted in a narrow curriculum.  The emphasis of teacher education programs to ensure pre-service teachers meet the required standards has reduced teaching to mechanistic approaches and fails to provide experiences that address the complexities of teaching.  This narrow curriculum fails to encourage students to critically analyze the current state of education.  The unsuccessful attempt to create standards to achieve the goal of increasing teacher quality has resulted in the preparation of the “standardized teacher”.

Author Biography

Kelsy Krise, University of Toledo

I am a doctoral graduate assistant in the department of Curriculum and Instruction.

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Published

2016-06-27