Prepared and Supported: ; Continuing Education for Teachers Critical for West Virginia Students

Summary

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I REMEMBER my first days in the classroom after I had graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in education and a teaching certificate. To say I felt a little scared is an understatement. Despite all the courses and the three student teaching experiences I had, I still felt ill-prepared. Since my experiences were years ago, I had assumed new teachers entered the classroom today feeling better prepared and supported. I was wrong.

The Education Alliance, West Virginia's statewide education fund, asked 1,400 West Virginia secondary teachers to react to the statement, "My teacher education program adequately prepared me for the classroom." A total of 540 teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement. We asked that question as part of a research and community engagement effort to encourage educators and communities to discuss how quality teaching could be supported, as part of a grant by the Public Education Network with funding provided by the Annenberg Foundation.

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Extract

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Prepared and Supported: ; Continuing Education for Teachers Critical for West Virginia Students

If more than 38 percent of our teachers don't feel adequately prepared to be in their classrooms, then continuing professional development becomes critically important to giv...

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