NCTQ

 
 

Rationale: Preparation efficiency

Professional coursework should be sufficient to prepare the teacher for a challenging career but should not require so much time that teachers cannot take other classes. Excessive professional coursework discourages talented individuals from pursuing teacher preparation—and public school teaching.

Illinois does not monitor the number of credit hours that preparation programs require to ensure efficient delivery of content to teacher candidates. The state relies on a standards-based approach to coursework specifications, which requires that programs commit only to teaching state standards in return for approval.

ELEMENTARY TEACHER PREPARATION

By identifying the following necessary topics, we established that 51 semester hours of professional coursework more than reasonably accommodates preparation of elementary teacher candidates.

  • Reading pedagogy1
  • Methods coursework (involving field work) covering mathematics, science, social studies and language arts/ writing in some combination, with the use of technology in instruction and instruction for English language learners addressed in conjunction with subject-specific pedagogy coursework
  • Child development
  • Classroom management
  • Assessment
  • Teaching diverse learners, especially the foundations of special education, and teaching student with special needs
  • Education policy challenges
  • Student teaching

It is also important to note that it is not necessarily the case that each topic needs its own three-semester-hour course (with the exception of reading pedagogy, which requires six semester hours, and methods coursework, including mathematics methods, requiring 9 to 12 semester hours). Even if each topic were addressed in a three-semester-hour course, the coursework would entail only 33 semester hours.

SECONDARY TEACHER PREPARATION

By identifying the following necessary topics, we established that 30 semester hours of professional coursework more than reasonably accommodates preparation of secondary teacher candidates:

  • Subject-specific methods coursework (including field work), with the use of technology in instruction and instruction for English language learners addressed in conjunction with this coursework
  • Reading across the content areas
  • Adolescent development
  • Classroom management
  • Assessment
  • Teaching diverse learners, especially the foundations of special education, and teaching student with special needs
  • Education policy challenges
  • Student teaching

It is also important to note that it is not necessarily the case that each topic needs its own three-semester-hour course. Even if each topic were addressed in a three-semester-hour course, the coursework would entail only 21 semester hours.

SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER PREPARATION

We established that 57 semester hours of professional coursework more than reasonably accommodates preparation of special education teacher candidates with room to spare by 1) assuming that either the same coursework required for elementary teacher preparation would be required for special education teacher preparation (e.g., reading pedagogy courses), or that analog coursework would be required (e.g., subject-specific instructional design courses substituting for subject-specific methods courses); and 2) adding another six semester hours to the 18-hour "cushion" already provided in the case of the elementary program.2

1One course in the fundamentals of effective reading instruction and one course in how to assess and provide effective remediation strategies for struggling readers.
2Since about one-third of undergraduate special education programs have coursework requirements that fall below this suggested upper-limit, the so-called "Corey H." regulations promulgated after litigation on the subject of the adequacy of preparation of special education teachers do not appear to conflict with this standard.