Hands Up for Better Teacher Training

Good news for America's schools, just in time for a new academic year. This week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced 28 new five-year "Teacher Quality Partnership" grants, according to a Department of Education press release. The grants, totaling $43 million, will aim to boost the quality of teaching in under-performing schools by improving teacher preparation in universities and creating teacher residency programs.

Multiple educational institutions — including struggling schools and school districts, along with departments of education and other subjects at universities — will partner to whip teaching quality in public elementary and secondary schools into shape. Nine of the 28 grants will reform traditional university-level teacher-training programs, 12 of them will create new residency programs for new teachers along a medical model and seven will do both.

All of the grants' programs will uphold tough selection standards for candidates, commitment to diversity and excellent support for teachers-in-training. Teaching residents, who will teach for three years in struggling schools, will receive a living wage.

Secretary Duncan laid out the case for the program in his remarks: "The Teacher Quality Partnership grants will improve student academic achievement by strengthening teacher preparation, training and effectiveness and help school districts attract potential educators from a wide-range of professional backgrounds into the teaching profession."

Photo courtesy of Chicago 2016 Photos, via Flickr