12/12/2007

Keys to Teacher Effectiveness

A recent study of preschool sites in four states shows that giving prekindergarten teachers access to mentors and to immediate data on children's pre-reading skills can have a positive effect on student performance, regardless of the teacher's own education levels. The findings, in a study conducted by the Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and reported in Education Week (October 10, 2007; www.edweek.org), may add to the debate over the role of formal college education for preschool teachers.

"Of course, we would like teachers to be well educated," said Susan Landry, the director of the center (and a college classmate of Laura Bush), which came up with the approach being studied. "But families need to put their children in child care," she said, "and our approach is to try to come up with a model that gets the job done until we reach the day when we have the right kinds of salaries and the right workforce."

Not all educators agreed with Landry's conclusions:

Jerlean Daniel, deputy director of NAEYC: "It is hard to believe that a person with little or no educational background could be as effective as a trained teacher."

Marcy Whitebook, director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, at the University of California, Berkeley: "The study might provide some creative ways to improve outcomes, but it doesn't answer the question of how to create an effective early childhood educator. When you switch the discussion to early childhood, you have to take into account that you don't have an accepted floor for preparation."

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• A Joyful Journey to Literacy - The Great Debate
• Learning Through Music: The Support of Brain Research
• Recognizing the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Practice
• How Children Build Their Understanding of Numbers
• The Project Approach in the Early Years
• Learning Materials For Children of All Abilities
• Art for All Children
• Great Places To Be a Baby: Infants’ and Toddlers’ Learning Environments

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