The issue…

Good teaching is at the heart of good schooling - therefore the quality of teacher preparation is crucial to helping students reach high academic standards. Yet many enter the profession unprepared, having received poor quality training. Some teachers, who are working without a regular teaching license, may never have received any training. Others may be unsuited to the profession, yet are permitted to teach because of lax licensing and certification standards.

The response…

From 1989 to 2001, The Wallace Foundation has provided some $50 million to support a wide range of projects aimed at improving the quality and preparation of teachers in the U.S., especially in high-need districts. Wallace's response was based on several premises:

• Improving teaching practice requires knowledge of subject matter content, child development, methods of assessing student progress, and pedagogy;
• The highly decentralized character of K-12 education and teacher preparation demands that a wide variety of professional learning opportunities be made available to teachers and schools;
•  If teaching practice is to improve, professional learning opportunities need to be more consistent, in-depth and coherent.

Taken together, the goal of The Wallace Foundation's support has been to improve teaching practices so that students learn the problem-solving, critical analysis and higher-order thinking skills needed for success in the 21st century.

The strategies…

Wallace has supported more than 40 projects, including school restructuring and improvement networks (such as Theodore Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools, James Comer's School Development Program, and John Goodlad's Institute for Educational Inquiry); school-university partnerships; three major evaluations; and a substantial body of research involving hundreds of scholars and teacher educators, and thousands of teachers.

Wallace also provided major support to strengthen accreditation standards for teacher preparation programs and standards for licensing and certification through:

• National Board for Professional Teacher Standards, Southfield, MI: to increase the number of teachers working in low-income communities who seek and achieve National Board Certification.
• National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, NYC: to help 12 states reform their systems of teacher preparation, licensing and certification.
• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Washington, DC: to revise a system for accrediting professional development schools in public school settings, where prospective teachers around the country are receiving practical training.

In addition, The Wallace Foundation awarded a four year $2.5 million grant to the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute to support the planning and implementation of Teachers Institutes in three cities committed to the development of exemplary teacher education programs.

The accomplishments…


Improving the quality and preparation of teaching has become solidly enshrined in the school reform movement. Teacher education programs are being established to demonstrate how to reform the preparation of teachers and how to support these teachers as they enter the profession. Results of this work have led the field toward reforms that will benefit students in low-income communities:

• Teachers working in low-income districts have increased their participation in the National Board Certification, which sets a national standard for accomplished teaching;
• Several states have made significant progress toward reforming teacher education, accreditation and certification to ensure teacher competency and qualification; and
• Standards are being established for schools where teaching candidates get practical experience.