Book Review: The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education (New Directions for Community Colleges Series No. 121)

Abstract

The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education (New Directions/or Community Colleges Series No. 121) by Barbara K. Townsend and Jan M. Ignash. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003, 113 pages, $28, softcover, ISBN 0194-3081. Reviewed by Audrey J. Jaeger.Teacher shortages across the nation have renewed interest in involving community college systems in the efforts to expand the teacher pipeline. Many states are recognizing that community colleges, with their tradition of responding quickly and flexibly to community needs, are a logical solution to unprecedented teacher shortages. In The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education, editors Barbara Townsend and Jan Ignash have compiled case studies from six states, reviewed national standards for teacher programs, and provided additional resources to guide community college leaders, state higher agencies, legislators, and others interested in improving and expanding the community college role in teacher education (p. 3).This volume offers practical information on program structures, factors, and stakeholders that can affect community college decisions to participate in teacher preparation programs. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the traditional and non-traditional ways that community colleges are involved in teacher education. This chapter concisely addresses the multitude of issues surrounding teacher and offers illustrative examples from the case studies (Missouri, California, Maryland, Arizona, Florida, and Texas) presented later in the volume. The case studies show both the unique and similar ways states have approached the community college role in teacher education.Throughout the text, the pros and cons of community college involvement in teacher are discussed. From the viewpoint of proponents, community colleges serve a high number of minority students, and for that reason they have the potential to increase the diversity of classroom teachers. The community college can serve as an important resource for increasing and maintaining the teacher pool. Community colleges often develop strong partnerships with local entities. Students in teacher programs can benefit from these partnerships through job placements in local school systems. Finally, community colleges offer a more affordable option for many students. From the viewpoint of opponents to community college involvement in expanding the teacher pipeline, the addition of teacher programs, especially those leading to a baccalaureate degree, may serve further to muddy the waters of the community college mission. These efforts could increase feelings of competition or distrust between community colleges and four-year institutions, causing other articulation and transfer programs to suffer. Another possible repercussion of adding baccalaureate programs is the creation of a two-tier faculty system within the community college. Unlike the majority of their colleagues, most faculty in a teacher preparation program would need to hold doctorates for program accreditation purposes.The case studies within the volume offer details on a variety of program structures for teacher preparation across the United States. One issue at the center of teacher discussions is articulation. These agreements bring their own set of challenges, as seen in Missouri's case in Chapter 2. Before the state began to respond to the national standards movement for approval of four-year teacher programs, community college students in Missouri were already experiencing problems transferring to four-year college teacher programs. The case reviews how community colleges were strategically brought into the conversation in a proactive attempt to ease some of the tensions of student transfer. A more seamless articulation agreement between a community college and a particular four-year college is described in Chapter 3. This program, Teacher Training Academy at Cerritos Community College in California, has been in existence for five years and is one of the oldest described in this volume. …