The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education - New Directions for Community Colleges Series No. 121 - Book Review

Community College Review, Fall, 2003 by Audrey J. Jaeger

by Barbara K. Townsend and Jan M. Ignash. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003, 113 pages, $28, softcover, ISBN 0194-3081. Reviewed by Audrey J. Jaeger.

Teacher shortages across the nation have renewed interest in involving community college systems in the efforts to expand the teacher pipeline. Many states are recognizing that community colleges, with their tradition of responding quickly and flexibly to community needs, are a logical solution to unprecedented teacher shortages. In The Role of the Community College in Teacher Education, editors Barbara Townsend and Jan Ignash have compiled case studies from six states, reviewed national standards for teacher education programs, and provided additional resources to guide community college leaders, state higher education agencies, legislators, and others interested in "improving and expanding the community college role in teacher education" (p. 3).

This volume offers practical information on program structures, factors, and stakeholders that can affect community college decisions to participate in teacher preparation programs. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the traditional and non-traditional ways that community colleges are involved in teacher education. This chapter concisely addresses the multitude of issues surrounding teacher education and offers illustrative examples from the case studies (Missouri, California, Maryland, Arizona, Florida, and Texas) presented later in the volume. The case studies show both the unique and similar ways states have approached the community college role in teacher education.

Throughout the text, the pros and cons of community college involvement in teacher education are discussed. From the viewpoint of proponents, community colleges serve a high number of minority students, and for that reason they have the potential to increase the diversity of classroom teachers. The community college can serve as an important resource for increasing and maintaining the teacher pool. Community colleges often develop strong partnerships with local entities. Students in teacher education programs can benefit from these partnerships through job placements in local school systems. Finally, community colleges offer a more affordable option for many students. From the viewpoint of opponents to community college involvement in expanding the teacher pipeline, the addition of teacher education programs, especially those leading to a baccalaureate degree, may serve further to muddy the waters of the community college mission. These efforts could increase feelings of competition or distrust between community colleges and four-year institutions, causing other articulation and transfer programs to suffer. Another possible repercussion of adding baccalaureate programs is the creation of a two-tier faculty system within the community college. Unlike the majority of their colleagues, most faculty, in a teacher preparation program would need to hold doctorates for program accreditation purposes.

The case studies within the volume offer details on a variety of program structures for teacher preparation across the United States. One issue at the center of teacher education discussions is articulation. These agreements bring their own set of challenges, as seen in Missouri's case in Chapter 2. Before the state began to respond to the national standards movement for approval of four-year teacher education programs, community college students in Missouri were already experiencing problems transferring to four-year college teacher education programs. The case reviews how community colleges were strategically brought into the conversation in a proactive attempt to ease some of the tensions of student transfer. A more seamless articulation agreement between a community college and a particular four-year college is described in Chapter 3. This program, Teacher Training Academy at Cerritos Community College in California, has been in existence for five years and is one of the oldest described in this volume. No detailed results or evaluation data from the program are given beyond its number of graduates.

This volume also addresses the associate degree and other alternative certification programs. Chapter 4 describes efforts in Maryland that led to the creation of the Associate of Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.) degree. The uniqueness of Maryland's story lies in both the strong statewide interest and participation in the creation of this degree and the use of student outcomes versus particular courses to define the degree goals. Students completing the 60-hour A.A.T. degree program can transfer all 60 hours to any four-year state institution offering a teacher education program. Creative programs designed for and targeting teaching assistants and other part-time and full-time employees of the local school district who are not certified teachers are described in both Chapter 3 (California's TEACH and Transition to Teaching programs) and Chapter 5 (Arizona's "Grow-Our-Own" programs). Community colleges have also created certification programs for lateral-entry teachers. Chapter 7 discusses the Collin County Community College district in Texas, home to an Alternative Teacher Certification program for individuals who hold a baccalaureate degree outside education but who desire to become certified teachers.