Abstract
The accompanying article describes the plan which has been agreed upon between the school people in Arkansas and the Fund for the Advancement of Education of The Ford Foundation. It summarizes the reconcilement of what originally de veloped as a highly controversial proposal. First announcements of the proposal, widely publicized in the press, caused extreme speculation and apprehension among teacher-education personnel throughout the country. These announce ments rather categorically and, it seemed from this distance, rather confidently stated that all professional courses in the first four years were to be eliminated, the two state teachers colleges abolished, as such, and transformed into liberal-arts col leges. The inference was that a predeter mined plan of teacher education, unsup ported by any valid evidence of superiority over the old, was to be imposed on a state school system. The furor raised by these unfortunate statements was reflected in a resolution denouncing the plan, adopted by the AACTE at its annual meeting in Chicago last February.
Fortunately, school personnel in Arkan sas calmly and judiciously sought sound answers to questions raised by the pro posal. They refused to be stampeded by newspaper and public pressures or the lure of grants. A year of intensive study has resulted in a meeting of minds and the adoption of an experimental program which will parallel the present one. If valid evaluative techniques are used, a great service could be rendered teacher education by providing evidence of the relative merits of this plan as contrasted with another. Without such evidence, skepticism may justifiably continue con cerning the wisdom of telescoping profes sional preparation into the fifth year.
C. M. Clarke is Director of the Division of Teacher Education and Certification, Arkansas State Department of Education. He will serve as Chairman of the Execu tive Committee which will direct the project.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.