New Forms of Teacher Education: Connections to Charter Schools and Their Approaches

This article critically analyzes the application of charter school techniques in teacher education, especially in two noteworthy programs: the newly developed Relay Graduate School of Education and Match Teacher Residency. We describe how their approaches to teacher preparation differ from traditional teacher education programs. We also raise concern regarding the ways charter-inspired teacher preparation programs overlook the contributions of theory to good teaching, jeopardize teacher flexibility, alter understandings of the professional practice of teaching, and threaten the overarching purpose of educating for democracy that is integral to traditional teacher colleges. We emphasize educationally worthwhile approaches from this new domain of teacher preparation while also offering some words of caution regarding approaches that, given their ties to charter schooling, may be problematically celebrated by the media and public