Teaching Teachers: Facts & Figures. RATE II: Research About Teacher Education Project.

Overview & Synopsis

The Research About Teacher Education (RATE) project is an ongoing data collection effort to establish a reliable data base about teacher education. Thirty schools were randomly selected from institutions offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees for a total of 90 institutions. Following a long-term plan for rotating targeted respondents, professors of foundation courses and their students were surveyed. Participants in the survey included 153 professors and 729 students. Five sections elaborate on the data collected. Section one presents the context for teacher education by examining data which describe the entire institution and its education unit. The second section describes the status of current reforms in teacher education as reported by the participating institutions. The anatomy of a program with a focus on foundations is the subject of the third section. Section four studies the education professoriate and section five, student profiles. A summary of highlights points out some encouraging findings as well as some concerns that need to be addressed. Data are displayed in tables with narrative analysis. (JD)