Earlier this month, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation provided formal comments to the U.S. Department of Education about proposed changes to federal teacher preparation rules. Several Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows added their voices to the thousands of public comments that were submitted. WW Perspectives offers a sampling of some of those submissions in a series of posts, starting with the following.

From Kaitlin Ruby-Knecht, 2012 WW Teaching Fellow (Ohio):

The focus of regulation should not be on how well students perform on a standardized test. Instead, regulation should ensure an equitable system of learning standards, access to funding, school resources, and then—only as a later goal—assessment. Colleges and universities should be rated on the amount and level of research surrounding topics that are important in student development and culturally relevant teaching practices.

Yes, we need new regulations to improve the state of education in this country.  We need to train and support excellent teachers so students can meet higher cognitive demands.  To achieve this we need to give aspiring educators varied experiences in multiple classrooms, provide exposure to best practices in response to new standards, and ask veteran teachers where they find shortcomings.   We do not need more effectiveness ratings or university accountability measures based on invalid standardized testing.

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