The University of Colorado at Boulder's School of Education is celebrating 100 years of preparing people to teach during its "Best Should Teach" event Aug. 19.
State legislators and other education policymakers and administrators will join CU-Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano, Interim Provost Stein Sture, deans, faculty, students and alumni to mark the 100-year anniversary of the enactment of the state's teacher licensure legislation. The event is open only to invited participants.
When Colorado legislators passed House Bill 423 in 1909, the new law created a formal statewide credential for the teaching profession. The state licensure meant that in order to teach at the high school level, teachers had to be college graduates, with special training in education curricula. Prior to House Bill 423, completing college preparatory curriculum -- in other words, graduating from high school -- was sufficient to become a teacher.
In effect, House Bill 423 helped increase the stature of public school teachers as more universities adopted programs to train teachers. House Bill 423 was significant because it formalized the expectation that to teach in Colorado required a college degree as well as specialized preparation in pedagogy. House Bill 423 paved the way for a well-defined curriculum to educate future teachers. As a result, a teaching career rose in esteem from that of a "trade" to one of a "profession."
Between 1908 and 1910, attendance doubled at CU-Boulder's College of Education (as it was called then). By 1910, there were 241 students enrolled in education classes. Of those, 170 indicated they would attain their state license requirements. Today, the CU-Boulder School of Education enrolls 390 undergraduate and post-bachelor's degree students, 315 master's degree students and 76 doctoral students.
In recent years, the School of Education has focused on graduating well-informed teachers who are both prepared for the classroom and have a superior depth of knowledge in the area they plan to teach.
"Over the years, our licensing program has changed in ways that increasingly capitalize on the content knowledge of the teacher candidates," said School of Education Dean Lorrie Shepard. "However, the strength of our program lies in the fact that we are very committed to the idea that you have to be properly trained before you go into the classroom, so students who go through our program come out with both content expertise and pedagogical expertise."
Shepard said the school also has developed into a national power when it comes to faculty research in both teacher education and policy issues. While many prestigious schools of education around the country can have upwards of 200 faculty members in their schools, CU is relatively small with 33 faculty members.
"A small school of education has to be much more focused, and our goals of focusing on teacher education and education policies were set back when Chancellor Phil DiStefano was the dean of the School of Education," Shepard said. "I think that that sense of purpose and focus has served us very well over the years since then."
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