As teacher educators search for ways to prepare future educators for the challenges of assessment implementation, we suggest that authentic practice by preservice teachers in an informal learning environment promotes assessment implementation. The analysis of 28 volunteer assessment students' reflections revealed that practicing assessment…

Public schools are continually pressed to meet the demands of an increase of a culturally and linguistically diverse population, compounded by the pressures exerted by the No Child Left Behind legislation and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Indicated is a need for multicultural understandings in courses and field…

The anticipated constraints imposed by the accountability process associated with standards-based reform on teachers' practice suggest a tension between teachers' desire for flexibility and the accountability mandates associated with reform initiatives. In particular, we posited that the teachers would negatively perceive the influence of…

In the early 1980s, process-product research to determine effective teaching practices was replacing efforts to "teacher-proof" the curriculum. Now 30 years later, although both these efforts did not lead to hoped-for changes, scientifically based research and data-driven instruction dominate the improvement discourse. Given the current…

Schools function primarily on two basic principles. The first focuses on the education of students in cognitive skills, and the second, on the education of students in the social skills. Both are necessary to function successfully within society, the workforce, and the political framework of the country (Fullan, 1993). Although these principles…

Theorizing about teacher education and democracy is a challenging task in the year 2009. According to this author, the antidemocratic forces of the social efficiency movement have intensified with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, and recent activities of the Obama Department of Education have ratcheted up social efficiency's premise…

The major challenge faced by teacher education in an increasingly global society is to prepare teachers who can function effectively in a standards and accountability environment while modeling and inspiring their students to be internationally minded, creative citizens. However, the demographic changes taking place throughout the world,…

Lois Weiner (2007) asserts that neoliberalism is "a lethal threat to U.S. teacher education" (p. 274). In this paper, the authors argue that neoliberalism poses the most important challenge faced by teacher education in an increasingly global society. Neoliberalism is having a direct impact on U.S. teacher education in the form of the…

Within the next decade teacher preparation programs will be replete with teacher candidates who have experienced the implementation of the No Child Left Behind legislation in their K-12 schooling experience. However, most current teacher candidates graduated from their K-12 schooling experience before the legislation was implemented in schools.…

The National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) published "A Nation at Risk", declaring the mediocrity of American educational performances. Twenty-five years later, our nation still remains at risk even though the federal government, through the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has attempted to create a…

Although the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 dismisses the role of pedagogy in teacher education, teacher educators see the need for a deeper pedagogy that includes the teaching of thinking and socioemotional processes, which are missing in traditional teacher preparation programs. This article outlines criticisms of teacher education found in…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 set forth to hold all schools accountable to high standards and address the long-standing objective of closing the achievement gap between students from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. The guidelines and criteria that describe highly qualified teachers emphasize pedigrees and standardized test scores as…

This article describes four myths about teacher quality commonly associated with the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Myth 1 explores the hypothesis that generating an endless supply of new teachers to solve the teacher shortage is the best way to alleviate any real teacher shortage. Myth 2 tackles the assertion that academic ability…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 emphasizes school accountability, including consequences for perceived school failure, and NCLB consistently equates educational success with high student standardized test scores. I argue that NCLB may produce unacceptably high levels of collateral damage, and that teacher educators have special reasons…

The faculty in the Department of Urban Education (DUE) at the University of Houston Downtown (UHD) have developed critical awareness of issues related to the responsibility of both teachers and teacher educators for addressing the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The purpose of this article is to provide relevant information on…