Efforts to Reform Teacher Education in Tennessee: A Ten Year Analysis.

Overview & Synopsis

This paper describes the reform processes in teacher education in Tennessee over the past ten years. The decade of school improvement efforts, which culminated in 1984 with the passage of the Comprehensive Education Reform Act (CERA), is discussed. The paper presents: (1) a summary of action taken between l975-80; (2) an account of the action taken in l981-82, just prior to the passage of CERA; and (3) a description of provisions in CERA that deal directly with teacher education and of those provisions of the act that have implications for teacher education, both preservice and inservice. A description is given of the Better School Program in Tennessee which laid the foundations for passage of CERA. Included in the description is a discussion of the issues raised by the Better Schools Program, and of the legislative difficulties encountered in the passage of CERA. The implications of CERA for changes in schools of education are examined. (JD)