What Business Can Do About Teacher Quality

Here are some strategies and resources to help business leaders play a major role in teacher preparation reform:

Invest in quality teacher education

Endow a chair in education, support technology integration into the education school curriculum, or contribute expertise. The CEO Forum on Education and Technology created a form by which schools of education can assess whether they are meeting the technology needs of teacher educators and the aspiring teachers in their classes.

Encourage young people to consider teaching

Help establish a Future Educators of America (FEA) chapter in your town. Sponsored by Phi Delta Kappa International, FEA offers information on teaching as a profession as well as lists of job opportunities, financial assistance options, and resources on such educational issues as professional mobility, diversity, and job security.

Speak out for better teacher education

Advocate higher standards for teacher education through your state and national legislative bodies. The Business Roundtable is promoting "Education Reform 2001," whose targets include improvement in teacher recruitment, training, and professional development.

Promote technology instruction

See that local schools of education meet the technology standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. New teachers need the skills to graduate as teachers who know how to best use technology to their students' advantage. Education deans and university presidents need to hear from business leaders that technology is an essential ingredient in teacher education.

Resources

The Business Coalition for Excellence in Education. BCEE is a project of the National Alliance for Business that organizes education reform efforts at the federal level for companies and associations.

Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education. The center offers an extensive Web library of information about teacher preparation and the status of the teaching profession.

Improving the Quality of Teaching: The Business Role. A coalition of business organizations, including the National Alliance of Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, offers a detailed blueprint to businesses on what they can do to make sure students are taught by qualified teachers.

Who Should Teach? Quality Counts. This extensive annual Education Week magazine report provides a state-by-state analysis of teaching standards and licensure requirements as well as a grade on how well states are working to improve teacher quality. To view this resource in its entirety, you must be a registered user on the Edweek site.