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Seven Trends to Reform U.S. Teacher Education, and the Need to Address Systemic Injustices

In this statement, over 350 deans and other leaders are calling for a significant shift in teacher-education programs. They caution against many of the current trends for “reforming” how we prepare teachers for our nation’s public schools. Several of these trends share the fundamental flaw of focusing on hyper-individualistic, market-based solutions linked to failed ideas about student achievement, teacher accountability, rewards, and punishments, rather than addressing legacies of systemic injustices in educational institutions and strategies to increase participatory democracy. The statement concludes with an alternative vision for teacher education that advances equity and justice in our schools.