Those were among the major themes that emerged during the three-day annual conference of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
In making the case for why teachers must be ready to teach on day one, Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the school of education at the University of Michigan, lamented how often she hears teachers relate that they were a “wreck” during their first year of teaching.
“This kind of talk can’t go on being acceptable,” Ball said during a presentation about accountability for teacher preparation programs.
“Airline pilots don’t say, ‘My first few years of flying I was a wreck,’” Ball said. “That needs to be gone.”
Ball, who won this year’s AACTE award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education, also proffered that teacher candidates should be deemed “safe to practice” before they begin to teach.
Asked by Diverse during a Q&A if “safe to practice” was too low of a standard for educators to be expected to meet given the overall purpose of education, Ball acknowledged that the concept was ripe for discussion but noted that students are being put at risk when they are placed in classrooms with ill-prepared teachers.
