Public education improvement focus appropriate

Report cards for teacher colleges? You bet.

“Nothing in school matters as much as the quality of teaching our students receive,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said recently.

With that in mind, the Obama administration is pushing forward with regulations to require states to issue report cards for their teacher training programs.

Under the plan, programs would be rated as “low-performing,” “at-risk,” “effective” or “exceptional.”

Programs rated “low-performing” or “at-risk” for two consecutive years would lose federal TEACH (Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education) grants, which give up to $4,000 a year to teacher candidates who agree to work full-time in high-need fields and struggling schools for at least four academic years.

The federal plan is not expected to go into full effect until 2019, but as in the case of many of the reforms pushed by the Obama administration, New Mexico is at the top of the class.

The state already is on track to issue report cards by the end of this school year to the state’s six colleges of education. And this summer the University of New Mexico launched an overhaul of its College of Education headed up by a new dean.

These are much-needed initiatives intended to turn out better teachers ready to enter the classroom with confidence and knowledge.

It’s appropriate some of the focus on improving public school education in New Mexico is turning toward the cultivation of new teachers. In the end, New Mexico students will be the winners, and that’s what counts.

— Albuquerque Journal