Elementary Education

During the first two centuries following the settlement of the American colonies the education of youngsters was a shared endeavor, with the family assuming major responsibility and the church typically taking on a prominent role as well. Various agencies and businesses in the community also contributed as children early on served in apprenticeships and indentures. Certain individuals did formally teach youngsters. However, in his major history of colonial education (1970), Lawrence Cremin noted that usually these individuals did not view teaching as their primary occupation nor were they formally prepared to do so. Some tutored the youngsters of the upper class. Others, typically women, taught the basics of reading, writing, and ciphering in their homes in what were known as dame schools. This rather informal and shared approach to educating youngsters continued well into the nineteenth century.

When the common school evolved in the early decades of the nineteenth century, the principles of free tuition, universal attendance, and hence tax support also became more prevalent. Correspondingly, the need for qualified teachers spread and the first public normal school was established in Massachusetts in 1839. These teacher preparation institutions spread quickly throughout New England and by the end of the nineteenth century to the rest of the country.

The curriculum in these normal schools focused on the subjects these prospective teachers were eventually to teach. Jesse May Pangburn's 1932 review of normal schools revealed, "students needed to show a mastery of reading, writing, spelling, geography, grammar, and arithmetic for admission to the regular professional courses" (p. 14). Examples of these "professional" courses were thirteen weeks devoted to the history of education, twenty-seven weeks in the science of education, and thirty-one weeks in methods in the elementary branches. Observation in elementary schools followed by practice teaching was a culminating feature of the normal school curriculum and the curriculum was spread out over one or two years.

As late as 1898 there were approximately 250 normal schools; however, these institutions graduated only about a fourth of the total number of elementary teachers needed. Most elementary teachers were simply graduates of elementary schools. These teachers were nearly always women who could be recruited for lower salaries than men and who were believed to possess the nurturing qualities needed to interact effectively with younger children.

With the advent of the twentieth century departments of education in universities evolved. Wayne Urban (1990) reported that the motivation for universities to incorporate teacher preparation into the curriculum stemmed from their need for increased enrollment and the positive public relations that came from addressing the needs of the expanding public school systems. The creation of specific departments of education would "also allow women to enroll but not spread their presence or influence across the campuses" (p. 63).

The normal schools now had to transform themselves in order to compete with the universities. Many of these normal schools became teachers colleges. Some of the teachers colleges eventually included other majors, and in the last half of the twentieth century some even became universities. Bachelor's degrees were now offered in both universities and teachers colleges. This resulted in adding general education requirements to the more technical teacher education curriculum. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s the foundations movement, guided by the social and philosophical ideas of John Dewey, took place in teacher education. The disciplines of history, philosophy, and psychology were brought to bear more directly on both the problems of teaching and the role of school in addressing broader societal issues. Thus, by World War II, the general structure of the preparation of elementary teachers was shaped much as it remains at the beginning of the twenty-first century: academic study, foundational study, professional study, and practice teaching.

Current Structure and Organization

In the early twenty-first century, teacher preparation in the United States is a huge enterprise. There are more than 3 million teachers in public schools in the United States and more than 1,400 institutions of higher education of various types that offer programs preparing teachers. The preparation of teachers is also increasingly undertaken as a partnership endeavor with elementary and secondary personnel assuming an expanded role, especially in the clinical aspects of this endeavor. A distinctive trend in the 1980s and 1990s was the formulation of professional development, professional practice, or partner schools specifically designed to assist in the preparation of prospective teachers.

The Research About Teacher Education (RATE) Study (1989) was a national survey of the organizational and structural properties of programs preparing elementary teachers in the United States. This study reported that the typical distribution of college credits for an elementary education program consisted of approximately 132 semester hours accordingly: general studies (58 credits), professional studies (42 credits), an area of concentration (20 credits), and student teaching (12 credits). About a third of the programs required an academic major averaging 32 credits, and another fourth required an academic minor averaging 20 credits.

A typical professional sequence for prospective elementary teachers includes six hours in the methods of teaching reading and approximately three hours each in the methods of teaching social studies, math, science, and language arts. Student teaching is usually completed in one setting and lasts about twelve weeks. Many programs preparing elementary teachers are organized into "blocks" of courses so that related subjects can be studied in an integrated fashion.

At the baccalaureate level, one can find preparation programs in relatively equal numbers that begin at the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year. However, elementary teacher preparation increasingly has taken on a postbaccalaureate flavor. History shows a pattern of teacher preparation from no formal preparation to two years, then four years, and at the turn of the twenty-first century, often five years and more. Some five-year programs combine undergraduate and graduate credits. Others result in a master's degree along with the baccalaureate award. In addition there are teacher preparation programs offered solely at the masters level, often designed to attract prospective teachers whose undergraduate degree is in another field. Finally, there are also many alternative licensure programs usually intended to accommodate the "nontraditional" student and to recruit teachers for "high need" schools.

The Continuing Education of Elementary Teachers

In addition to the trend towards extended programs of preparation, many states and school districts are offering what are referred to as induction or entry year programs wherein novice teachers in the critical first years of teaching are provided assistance by veteran teachers. Novice teachers also come together periodically to continue their education. Some of these programs are sponsored by the district, others by teachers' unions, and still others in partnership with universities.

The education of teachers hardly stops at this point. Licensing requirements mandate that teachers continue their education, and the rapidly changing student demography, new technologies, and everexpanding information underscore why they continually need to do so. While many teachers return to universities for further coursework (the majority of elementary teachers now complete at least a master's degree), they also regularly engage in educational activities sponsored by their school districts and teachers' unions. Although summer and after-school workshops remain a staple of this continuing education, increasingly forms of continuing professional development are built into teachers' ongoing daily activities with an emphasis on inquiry into and reflection upon how they are impacting student learning. During the 1990s professional development guidelines and accountability measures were put in place so that veteran teachers could be certified by a national board as accomplished teachers.

Unresolved Issues and Problems

Although inroads generally have been made in the recruitment, preparation, and induction of elementary teachers, problems remain and several issues can be raised as well. First, studies of teaching effectiveness underscore the essentiality of knowing the subject one teaches in considerable depth and having a repertoire of teaching strategies indigenous to that subject. Thus a strong argument can be made that most elementary teachers simply are not adequately prepared to teach five or six subjects well. Rather, what is needed are schools where elementary teachers work in teams assuming collective responsibilities for a group of youngsters but with each teacher on the team teaching only one or two subjects. This suggests quite a different pattern of preparing elementary teachers with an emphasis on effective collaboration among other needed changes. Second, the plurality of cultures and languages that is now represented in many classrooms calls for teaching that is sensitive and responsive to pluralism and youngsters who live in very different neighborhoods; a daunting challenge indeed. Third, the pervasive presence and massive potential of the computer as a teaching tool and vehicle for learning presents particular challenges in preparing teachers. Fourth and finally, while the preparation of elementary teachers has generally been improved and extended over time and entry-year programs are becoming more common, these endeavors tend to be uncoupled and not aligned with one another.

Although partnerships in the preparation of teachers are evolving and outstanding veteran teachers are contributing in expanded ways, these partnerships tend to be ad hoc in nature and tenuous, involving a few individuals rather than interinstitutional arrangements. Reform in teacher preparation tends not to proceed in an aligned and simultaneous manner with needed reforms in elementary schools.