Whether you are heading to the movie theater to see a documentary, perusing the newspaper or listening to politicians, there's a good chance you've noticed a new focus on public school teachers. At the heart of this conversation are questions of teacher quality, including where and how teachers are trained — and for more than half of educators, that place was a teacher preparation program at a college or university.

When teacher preparation programs are mentioned, it is usually not to praise them — in fact, they have become a favorite whipping boy when discussing K-12 educational ills. Above all, they are blamed for not adequately preparing teachers to educate a new, diverse generation of American youth.

The increased criticism has not gone unnoticed by professors at Minnesota's private colleges.

"It is so frustrating to be painted with a broad — and black — brush of mediocre teacher prep programs. I'm sure there are some, but I personally am not familiar with any in Minnesota, especially among our private colleges," said Jane Anderson, undergraduate dean of education at Saint Mary's University.

Augsburg College professor Susan O'Connor agrees - and adds that at Augsburg and other private colleges' teacher preparation programs, they are constantly trying new things, all with the goal of better preparing future teachers.

Both professors point to a host of initiatives, some of them new, some continued, which not only contradict much of the criticism but speak to their education departments' adaptations to a changing profession and evolving student needs.

Adapting to a changing student population
One of the biggest changes in America's schools involves the composition of students, Anderson said. Schools are becoming more diverse, and nationally, more than 40% of the K-12 population is students of color, with increased numbers of immigrant and ELL (English Language Learner) students.

Even rural areas, like Winona and its surrounding communities, have become more diverse, with many speaking Spanish, Hmong and East African languages, Anderson said. To respond to the need, Saint Mary's is planning to add a K-12 ELL endorsement. The program is in the planning stages and will augment the ELL K-12 classroom experience undergraduate and graduate education students already acquire. "Our teachers need this skill," she said, adding that "more students need ELL reading and writing instruction in particular."

Saint Mary's is also responding to the needs of current teachers with its graduate-level offerings, said Rebecca Hopkins, dean of the Graduate School of Education. One way they are doing this is by providing a 15-credit Culturally Responsive Teaching Certificate. The certificate is a new effort this year, in collaboration with a local school district. Eventually, the feedback from the pilot program will help to embed the culturally responsive teaching curriculum into all of its teacher preparation programs.

The certificate emphasizes assessing teachers' cultural competence and knowledge, and working to address how their own identities influence teaching practice and exploring concrete stategies to transform teaching. The program is relevant whether the teacher is working in an urban, suburban or rural area, Hopkins said. "Culturally responsive teaching is all about the children that are sitting in my classroom and how to best serve them and meet their needs," she said.

It also addresses an often identified weakness of teacher preparation programs, Hopkins said, noting that programs are generally criticized for being "primarily white professors teaching mostly white pre-service teachers. The thought is that we need more people of color in education, and that's absolutely true, but we also can't wait for that to happen to transform learning in the higher education and K-12 classroom," she said.

A partnership to attract much-needed teachers
The call to recruit more diverse teachers has also been heard at Augsburg, according to O'Connor. The Naadamaadiwin Tribal Cohort program, now in its second year, addresses a need voiced by the Minnesota Department of Education to recruit more Native teachers, particularly those with a K-12 license in EBD (Emotional or Behavioral Disorders) and LD (Learning Disabilities).

The post-baccalaureate program is a partnership between Augsburg and the University of Minnesota Duluth, and draws about half of its students from each school, O'Connor said. Most instruction for the program occurs online, but students meet twice each semester in Hinckley to discuss coursework in person and "develop a strong learning community."

The program takes two years to complete and the curriculum uses Native American cultural concepts as a framework, while also teaching "best practices," she said. This second cohort is double the size of the first; one-third of the inaugural participants were Native American, compared to two-thirds of the second group.

The cohort is just one example of Augsburg's efforts to address broad changes in education and teachers' needs, O'Connor said — but education departments alone cannot be responsible for improving America's schools.

"Teaching training programs are just the first step in a process" of preparing and supporting quality teachers, she said.

Relevance means classroom time, experienced instructors
Gone are the days when pre-service teachers sat in university classrooms listening to pedagogy lectures before setting foot in a real K-12 school. Today, whether future teachers are graduates or undergraduates, classroom time spent with actual students is the cornerstone of their preparation, O'Connor said.

"I'd be surprised if there is any institution in the state that doesn't build in (classroom hours) from the start," she said.

At Saint Mary's, undergraduate students have opportunities each semester, from their sophomore to senior years, to experience different K-12 classrooms before they student teach. There is so much coursework and clinical time to complete as education majors or minors, Anderson said, that students cannot fit in electives or a semester studying abroad. For that reason, Saint Mary's created a program that allows students to spend five weeks student teaching in another country, in addition to ten weeks in Minnesota, she said.

Augsburg, too, is working to get its pre-service teachers into K-12 classrooms in unique ways, said O'Connor. She mentioned a the Public Achievement pilot program, which places six special education licensure students in a local middle school classroom for two hours each week. The future teachers work with students to "take on an issue" that the students choose, she said. Middle-schoolers have chosen to work on issues like homelessness and energy conservation, she said, and are learning academic and social skills in the process.

Plenty of classroom time is only part of Augsburg's efforts to make sure their students understand the reality of teaching, O'Connor said. "The majority of faculty in our department have spent years teaching in a K-12 school."

Hopkins said the same thing is true at Saint Mary's, where instructors have an average of 19 years experience in the K-12 classroom; most graduate-level instructors there "are current teachers and practitioners," teaching kids during the day and college classes at night.

Anderson also noted that many undergraduate instructors serve on committees at the district level, and have joint grants with instructors in K-12 schools.

"Our instructors are very experienced teachers and leaders — the professionals our students aspire to be," Hopkins said.