Over on the Education World website, I have a new blog post reflecting on the National Center for Teaching Quality’s latest study on grade inflation in our education schools and how it — along with other developments — further points to a real need to move teacher education from a seat-time focused endeavor to one that is competency based and emphasizes mastery.

As I write:

Despite all we know about education and personalized learning and teaching styles and modes of delivery, we are still providing degrees based on how many hours one can log in a desk in a lecture hall. At too many institutions, teaching degrees are awarded based on “time served,” not on whether one understands and can apply what is taught in the classroom in their own classrooms.

And I continue:

In more concrete terms, we need to move from a system based on seat time and credit hours toward one based on competencies and mastery. Instead of just focusing on the academic preparation found in a higher education classroom, we need to equally emphasize the clinical experience and whether prospective educators can successfully apply the concerns learned in the classes they take while leading classrooms of their own. And it means providing the mentoring and support to make the transition from student to student teacher to teacher of record, gaining ongoing practical, professional learning from those who have come previously.

If I do say, the post is worth giving a quick read. The full post can be found here — http://www.educationworld.com/blog/moving-easy-mastery-teacher-ed.  Happy reading!