Baylor Education Dean, Hillcrest PDS To Be Highlighted At Washington, D.C., News Conference
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Baylor University School of Education Dean Robert Yinger and Waco ISD's Hillcrest Professional Development School will be in the national spotlight Tuesday, Oct. 16, when new standards for the clinical preparation of teachers are released in Washington, D.C.
Using the latest technology, the news conference announcing the standards will be broadcast via the web from the National Press Club. The live video broadcast can be viewed online beginning at 8:30 a.m. at http://www.caepnet.org/ and www.ConnectLive.com/events/ncate. Hillcrest PDS, located at 4225 Pine Ave. in Waco, will host a web-watching event at 8:30 a.m. in the school's library. Baylor education professors, Hillcrest teachers (including two former interns) and parents have been invited to watch the webcast.
Developed with the support of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the new standards describe the teaching profession's expectations for innovative Professional Development Schools (PDS), such as Waco's nationally recognized Hillcrest PDS, a partnership school with Baylor's School of Education. The implementation of the new standards, NCATE says, will provide a way to enhance teacher quality and address the teacher shortage.
The partnerships between colleges and universities and P-12 schools are similar to teaching hospitals in the field of medicine, where new physicians complete their training. Currently, one-third of accredited teacher preparation institutions are involved in professional development school training. Maryland and Louisiana have recently enacted policy that requires all public teacher preparation institutions to initiate PDSs, and policies encouraging PDSs have been enacted in Georgia, South Carolina and New Jersey.
The U.S. Department of Education recognizes NCATE as the professional accrediting body for teacher preparation in the United States. NCATE members, including parents, community members, professional organizations and teacher educators, are dedicated to improving the quality of education for the nation's children.
The news conference includes comments by Virginia Pilato, chief of program approval and assessment, Maryland Department of Education; Yinger, also president of The Holmes Partnership; Kathleen Gagne, PDS coordinator, Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, Springfield, Mass.; Marsha Levine, director of the NCATE PDS Standards Project; and Arthur Wise, NCATE president.
For more information, contact Dr. Thomas Proctor, chair of Baylor's educational psychology department, at 710-6166. Media should contact Lori Scott Fogleman, Baylor's director of media relations, at 710-6275 or mobile 744-4426, or Dale Caffey, Waco ISD public information officer, at 755-9455.