Teacher Preparation Solutions: Rumbling for Quality Just Won't Do

Abstract

Due to rapid population growth and critical teacher shortages on the national level in today's fast-changing public school systems, we are witnessing an unprecedented crisis in higher education and teacher preparation. To better understand the current state of teacher certification and preparation, this article examines the contentious atmosphere surrounding the development of recent educational policy and research. The attitude of stumbling (Walsh, 2001), or fighting or rumbling for quality, just won't do any longer. The goal for educational policy making should now be to provide solid solutions for the current teacher preparation and certification dilemma. This article offers solutions in several ways. First, I will provide a brief overview and analysis of U.S. Department of Education mandates, State of Florida Education mandates, the policy rumble for and against alternative certification and traditional teacher preparation, and the subsequent research rumble. These overviews and analyses will be followed by several solutions proposed in the literature, then subsequently my contribution to the solutions melee, and finally, a few graduate level art education teacher preparation observations.