Erikson Institute Chicago, Illinois
Institution Comment Comments submitted by: Gillian D. McNamee, Ph.D., Director, Teacher Education
Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development, promotes excellence in teaching professionals serving our nation’s youngest children in the early childhood years. Graduate education for future teachers includes in depth study of 1) child and family development in diverse social cultural contexts, 2) content knowledge in all curricular areas, and 3) methods of teaching that support learning among children from diverse language, cultural and economic backgrounds. Professionals who graduate from our program are trained in rigorous principles of assessment when evaluating their classroom, school program, and children’s outcomes. Such evaluation includes reconciling through careful discussion three kinds of evidence: description, observation and explanation/verification. As teacher educators, we, as well as our graduates, 1) describe: say on paper what we are attempting to teach and have taught, 2) let others observe our practice through videotapes, or by inviting colleagues and other professionals to see for themselves how words on paper match actions in the classroom. Finally, 3) we produce multiple sources of evidence of student learning. Assessment of our effectiveness lies in the reconciling of these three sources of information. NCTQ has taken the first step in evaluating our teacher preparation program: examining what is on paper. We hope that their staff and other professional educators will come to our campus or otherwise request evidence for the other two components of effective evaluation. Discussion of the program description, observations of our work in action, and student outcome data will make possible meaningful discussion of the conflicting and incomplete picture of teacher preparation that emerges in this “Preliminary Findings of Facts.”
www.nctq.org/edschoolreports
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