THEME Education Deans Respond to Mandated Program Changes

Reform mandates are forcing education deans to confront a variety of new issues and problems. Riggs and Huffman discuss the new directions evidenced in the reform movement and describe the lack of direct involvement of teacher educators in the reform debate. The authors also investigate the perceptions of deans toward different components of proposed education reform plans. he wave of reforms in teacher t education initiated by The t National Commission onExcellence in Education’s A Nation at Risk: T’he Imperative for Educa-tional Reform ( 1983) is noteworthy in two aspects. First, the reforms have been mandated by agencies, legisla-tures, and commissions external to school and departments of education; and second, these changes have gener-ally been conceptualized without the academic leadership of professional teacher educators