[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2203-E2204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S TEACHER TRAINING LEGISLATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DALE E. KILDEE

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 6, 1997

  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to introduce President Clinton's 
proposal for the reauthorization of title V, the teacher training title 
of the Higher Education Act. This important legislation has two 
important purposes: First, to improve the quality of teacher education 
programs in America's colleges and universities, and second, to provide 
schools in communities where the need is greatest of a new infusion of 
highly-qualified teachers.
  I have said on many occasions that education is a capital investment. 
It is truly an investment in our future strength. Surely nothing could 
be more important than investing in our children by investing in the 
men and women who will teach them. All across America there are efforts 
underway to raise standards for student performance, but these efforts 
will be dramatically diminished if our teachers do not have the 
knowledge and skills to teach to those high standards.
  The Federal Government currently addresses the professional 
development of teachers already in the classroom through efforts such 
as the Eisenhower Professional Development Program. Unfortunately, 
there is no similar Federal commitment in the education and training of 
new teachers. Simply put, we do little to recruit, prepare, and then 
support new classroom teachers.
  Over the next decade we will experience a student enrollment boom 
that will bring more students than ever before into our classrooms. The 
result is that we will need to hire more than 2 million teachers. At 
the same time, shortages of qualified teachers will intensify in many 
areas of the country, and most especially in our Nation's most needy 
communities. Central cities with large concentrations of low-income 
students will need to hire approximately 345,000 teachers. An 
additional 207,000 teachers will be needed in isolated, and often poor, 
rural areas.
  When schools face shortages of qualified teachers, they are forced to 
hire teachers who lack full certification, or who do not have any 
teacher training at all. Every year, 50,000 people who lack the 
training for their jobs enter the teaching profession. More than one-
quarter of newly-hired teachers begin teaching without having full met 
State standards.
  Shortages of qualified teachers often result in educators teaching 
outside their subject areas. Over one-third of public school teachers 
who teach the primary subjects do not have even a college minor in the 
field they are teaching. For students in high-poverty urban and rural 
schools--the very students who need the best teachers--the problem is 
even worse. Almost half of their teachers have neither a major nor a 
minor in the field they are teaching.
  Of the 2 million teachers we will need to hire over the next 10 
years, 1 million will be newly-prepared teachers. They will be called 
upon to teach all students to high standards. It is imperative, 
therefore, that their training be second to none.
  Unfortunately, many teacher education programs do not sufficiently 
prepare teachers well for the challenges of today's classrooms, and 
especially for the demands and challenges of our high-poverty 
classrooms. Many teachers experience too little clinical training. They 
lack in-depth knowledge of their area of concentration and of effective 
classroom practices. Many teacher preparation programs do not prepare 
teachers to use technology to facilitate student learning. And, once 
new teachers enter the classroom, they are all too often left without 
the support they need to ease the transition from student to teacher.
  The President's title V proposals addresses these challenges in a 
targeted, coherent way. The legislation would authorize $67 million for 
fiscal year 1999 for two programs focused on recruitment, preparation, 
and support for new teachers.
  The Lighthouse Partnerships program seeks both to identify and 
disseminate widely the best practices in teacher preparation and to 
ensure that K-12 schools are actively involved with colleges in the 
preparation of new teachers. The program would identify higher 
education institutions that currently prepare teachers well, 
institutions that have already done the hard work of reforming their 
teacher education programs and have a track record of collaboration 
with K-12 schools. These institutions would partner with other teacher 
preparation institutions that want to restructure their programs. The 
result would be a dramatic change in teacher preparation and a new 
commitment to high-quality teacher education. The program places a 
special emphasis on preparing new teachers for the challenges of our 
Nation's high-poverty urban and rural classrooms.
  The second part of the administration's proposal is the Recruiting 
New Teachers for Underserved Areas Program. This program would increase 
the number and diversity of teachers in the high-poverty areas that 
need them most. Partnerships between institutions of higher education 
and K-12 schools would work together to determined the schools' needs 
for teachers, such as the need for teachers in specific subject areas 
or the need for a more diverse teaching force. The partners would then 
work collaboratively to design programs to attract, prepare, and retain 
teachers to meet those needs. Prospective teachers would receive 
support services and scholarships if they agreed to teach in 
underserved areas for at least 3 years.
  Mr. Speaker, everyone in this Chamber knows that our future depends 
upon the quality of the education our children receive. The quality of 
that education, in turn, depends upon establishing and maintaining a 
teaching force of the highest quality. The President's teacher training 
proposals constitute a prudent investment in our teachers, our 
children, and our Nation. As the ranking Democrat on the Postsecondary 
Education Subcommittee, I look forward to working with my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to enact strong teacher recruitment and 
preparation legislation that adheres to the President's proposals in 
this area.

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