TEACHER ASSURANCE: A RATIONALE

Author(s): William Shreeve, Janet R. Norby, Arnold F. Stueckle, William G. J. Goetter,

Barbara deMichele and Thomas K. Midgley
Source: Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 4, Theme: TEACHER SUPPLY AND
DEMAND (AUTUMN 1985), pp. 107-111
Published by: Caddo Gap Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24027173
Accessed: 12-04-2018 05:00 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24027173?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Caddo Gap Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Teacher Education Quarterly

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Refereed Articles

TEACHER ASSURANCE: A RATIONALE

William Shreeve, Janet R. Norby, Arnold F. Stueckle,
W illiam G. J. Goetter, Barbara deMichele, and Thomas K. Midgley

Précis: This is a brief, informative statement about how

the Department of Education at Eastern Washington Univer
sity intends to back its teacher candidates. The authors
are the department chair, four professors, and one public
school representative.

In 1984, the Eastern Washington University Department of

Education unanimously adopted a teacher assurance program which
guarantees that its graduates will perform to classroom expecta
tions. If they do not, the university will provide remedial
assistance free of charge to the hiring school district. The
department relies on the evaluations of the hiring districts to
determine when remediation is required.

By adopting a teacher assurance program, the EWU Department

of Education became one of five institutions of higher education
in the nation offering teacher assurance programs. The others
are the University of Northern Colorado, Doane College in Crete,
Nebraska, Oregon State University, and the University of Arkansas
at Pine Bluff. The department reviewed teacher assurance pro
grams from other schools before formulating and adopting its own.

Why did every one of this department's forty members agree

to support a teacher assurance program?

The teacher assurance program benefits the Department

of Education by increasing its credibility with a sometimes
skeptical public, sharpening its accountability to hiring
districts, and augmenting the amount of feedback received
about the success (or failure) of its curriculum.

The program benefits the department's students by

increasing their marketability in a tight employment situa
tion and because it assures them of the staff's support
following graduation.

The program benefits school districts that hire

Eastern Washington University graduates by lifting the
burden of remediation from them and placing it with the
department. Classroom teachers and counselors will not
have to be drawn from regular duties to assist teachers who
receive probationary action.

107

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Teacher Education Quarterly/Autumn 1985

In addition, the process of reviewing a possible

teacher assurance program and its final adoption marked a
significant gesture of confidence in and support for the
department by its members. The program therefore has con
tributed to a higher level of internal staff morale.

The following report discusses the positive aspects of EWU's

teacher assurance program in detail.

CREDIBILITY

Although some gains have been made since A Nation At Risk

was published in 1984, teaching and teacher preparation haven't
yet gained complete public confidence. Inherent in the adoption
of a teacher assurance program are the same concepts that apply
to automobiles, refrigerators, or other manufactured products
The "company" backs its "products."

While most education professors probably wince at a compari

son between living, breathing students and cold hard products,
the public increasingly demands that educators account for the
successes and failures of their teaching methods. (Similar de
mands are being placed on schools of medicine and law, for
example.) For the most part, departments of education have
reacted to criticisms as they occur. The adoption of a teacher
assurance program, on the other hand, allows a department of
education to take the initiative in making positive statements
about its students and programs.

When Eastern Washington University adopted the teacher

assurance program, every major newspaper in Washington State
carried articles and editorials about the event. The Department
Chair, the Dean of the School of Human Learning and Development,
and the President of the university all were interviewed on
television. Radio coverage also was provided throughout the
state.

Typical of newspaper editorials is this ex

Spokane Spokesman-Review:

EWU's new policy looks like a positive move. . . If all

parties concerned—Eastern, the graduates and the school
districts—commit themselves to making this program work,
however infrequently it may be invoked, the cause of
education in Washington State could be advanced at
negligible cost to the taxpayers.

An unexpected dividend was added nearly a year later when

the New York Times carried an article about teacher preparation.
Leading the article was a summary of EWU's teacher assurance
program with this assessment:

Eastern Washington University, in Cheney near Spokane, is

one of a small but growing number of universities that are
attaching guarantees to the graduates of their schools of
education. The trend is rooted in a belief that inept
teaching has contributed to the ills condemned in the many
reports on the schools issued during the last two years.

108

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Teacher Education Quarterly/Autumn 1985

Thus, an educational reform movement that started by

urging higher standards for pupils has now widened to a
call for improving the preparation of teachers.

EWU's teacher assurance program thus influenced discussion

of teacher preparation at both the regional and national levels,
therefore promoting public awareness of an important component in
the reach for excellent schools.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Beside the need for positive messages for and about teacher
preparation programs, the Eastern Washington Department of Educa
tion has consistently maintained the importance of real and
lasting reforms in the field of teacher education. The reforms
implemented by this department since 1982 have been well documen
ted in a number of articles for professional journals. In brief,
they include:

Increased field experience for education majors, beginning at

the sophomore year,

Higher grade point averages (2.5) for entrance to the

department and matriculation,

Required reading instruction classes for secondary education

majors,

An additional required reading instruction class for

elementary education majors,

Required math and computer literacy classes for all education

students,

A required portfolio which contains student records,

recommendations, evaluations, and work experiences over the
course of the department's curriculum,

A required review by a professional committee prior to

admittance to the Department of Education,

A required exit review prior to certification.*

The teacher assurance program, then, reflects an on-going
commitment to departmental accountability.

In addition, members of the department knew full well the

implications of teacher failure and department accountability.
Research conducted by the department (published in the October,
1985 Thrust magazine under the title "Why Teachers Fail") demon
strated clearly that the majority of teachers placed on probation
lack classroom management techniques, discipline and communica
tions skills. They fail least often because they lack knowledge
of their subject areas.

These findings, which were well known in the department

before the program was adopted, illustrate the direct link
between education coursework and teacher success. If an EWU
graduate requires remedial assistance, the problems will prob
109

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Teacher Education Quarterly/Autumn 1985

not relate to his or her academic coursework, but to the teaching

methods and strategies learned through education classes and
practicums.

Even so, the EWU Department of Education welcomed this

additional demonstration of a commitment to accountability.

FEEDBACK

In a very real sense, the university has opened another set

of "checks and balances" within its total marketing system.
Again, the teacher assurance program is an addition, not the
centerpiece, of that system.

In 1 980, Eastern Washington University established its

Teacher Program Unit. Such units are required to approve teacher
education programs at every institution of higher education in
Washington. The unit is composed of 16 representatives from
local school districts, teacher education associations, retired
teachers' organizations, school boards, and the department of
education. Memberships, which are staggered, rotate every three
years.

The Teacher Program Unit has proven to be enormously ef

tive as a source of direct feedback concerning EWU's teacher
education program. It recommended and approved all of the
reforms mentioned earlier in this article. It also approved the
teacher assurance program.

With the program only in operation one year, the department

has not yet received a single request for remediation assistance.
The teacher assurance program does, however, offer a long-term
opportunity for feedback from districts and graduates.

MARKETABILITY

The department adopted the teacher assurance program unit in

part to increase the marketability of its teaching candidates.
Currently Washington is not experiencing a teacher shortage,
except in the areas of science and mathematics. The number of
students has increased at the kindergarten through third grades.
Both of these trends are similar to those at the national level.

After one year, it is probably too early to tell whether t

teacher assurance program has had a marked influence on the
employability of department graduates. Added to the shortness of
this program's life are the other reforms adopted by the depart
ment in recent years—all of them designed to make its graduates
more attractive to hiring districts. The department, however,
routinely monitors the progress of its graduates and should be
able to report accurately on the program's effectiveness within a
few years.

A similar statement could be made concerning benefits of the

program to hiring districts. Since the department has not re
ceived a request for remediation at this time, its commitment to
work with districts to improve the teaching skills of deficient
EWU graduates has not been tested—or proved—to hiring dis
tricts. Naturally, the department clearly hopes to place a

110

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 Teacher Education Quarterly/Autumn 1985

higher commitment on turning out highly qualified teaching candi

dates than it does on remediation of problems. Yet it also
realizes that the real effectiveness of the teacher assurance
program will depend upon responsiveness to future requests from
hiring districts.

As mentioned earlier, the teacher assurance program has

provided unexpected benefits to the Eastern Washington University
Department of Education through increased staff morale. As a
group, it has initiated a measure that should increase departmen
tal credibility with the public, the marketability of our gradu
ates, and cooperation between constituent districts and the
department.

As a group, the department has taken the unusual step of

publicly committing itself to excellence and accountability
through a measure that will, if implemented, require personal
responsiveness to an individual teacher in the classroom. This
alone may be the greatest benefit of the teacher assurance pro
gram.

FOOTNOTE

* Articles mentioned have appeared in Educational Horizons,

62(3); Teacher Education and Practice, i(2); and The Inter
national Journal of Instructional Media, 13(1),

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Doane College Offers Guarantees on New Teachers' Performance."

AACTE Brief, April 1984.

Eastern Washington University Department of Education.

"Successful Teacher Assurance Statement", 1984.

Eikenberry, Ken, Attorney General for the State of Washington.

Correspondence, July 10, 1984.

Lachowicz, Steve. "We Might Even Get a Bailout. . .," The

Wenatchee World, July 9, 1984.

Maeroff, Gene I. "Improving Our Teachers." The New York Times,

Education Section, January 6, 1985.

Shreeve, Dr. William, Chair, Eastern Washington University

Department of Education, personal contact, March 1985.

The Spokesman-Review/Chronicle. "EWU Plan Has Promise."

Editorial, July 23, 1984.

Stocker, Chuck, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Central

Valley School District (Spokane, WA), personal contact, May
1985.

Wherry, John, Executive Director, National School Public

Relations Association, personal contact, April 1985.

Ill

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Thu, 12 Apr 2018 05:00:56 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms