To satisfy the ongoing demands of external communities, education faculty at liberal arts colleges often make curricular and instructional compromises within their programs which can adversely affect the developmental goals of liberal education. This article highlights several of the complex tensions faculty members face in offering their…

The practice of assessing and grading students on their ability to demonstrate proficiency related to a standard has grown significantly in K-12 settings over the past decade. This article invites teacher educators to consider how to respond to this trend by examining an approach for preparing teacher candidates to participate effectively in…

As pedagogy experts, teacher educators should lead the charge for improved teaching and learning, but are under-utilized pedagogy resources in liberal arts universities. In this paper, the collaborators, one a teacher education assistant professor and the other an associate professor of art history, identify critical friendship group approaches…

Twenty-first century classrooms are filled with increasingly diverse student populations. Effective teacher preparation programs must include explicit course work in culturally responsive pedagogies and field experiences that place educators in new sociocultural contexts. Field experiences in cross-cultural, place-based settings have the potential…

Teacher preparation programs face great challenges in ensuring their graduates are prepared for the demands of today's classrooms. The authors explore how teacher accountability has evolved based upon federal legislation leading to adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Recognizing that future teachers will be held accountable…

This paper describes a community-based after-school tutoring project, where families are participants together with their children. There are 50 family members involved in the project, several have multiple children enrolled, and four families were selected for an in-depth case study. The goals of this mixed method study were to determine why…

Classroom assessment, especially formative assessment, is one of the most challenging areas for new teachers, so it is imperative that teacher educators model effective classroom assessment practices. This article describes the use of rubrics in formative assessment, to support candidates in their progress toward mastery of course outcomes and to…