New Report Reveals Gaps in Private School Teachers' Training

Friday, March 1, 2019

New Report Reveals Gapsin Private School Teachers’ Training (NAPSA)—Thereare more than 34,000 private schools educating more than 4.9 million K-12 students in America, accord- ing to the mostrecent federal data. And as school choice programs that help fam- ilies afford to sendtheir children to private schools continue to expand across the US., those numbers will only continueto grow. But are our future teachers and schoolleaders well-prepared to work in both public andprivate schools? New research released last month answers that question. The Private School Teacher Skills Gap, a report by EdChoice’s National Director of Research Dr. Michael McShane,reveals that teacher training programs have room to improve. Private and Public School Teachers Share Skills ‘The study foundthat thelist of skills Private school teachers often need even more skills than other educators do. leaders needto be successful is much lon- tor preparation programscould provide pathways for preservice teachers andschoolleadersto get the training they need to be successful in private Characteristics both need include being from other departments—such as public and private schoolteachers and gerthan thelist of skills they don’t share. innovative, communication, critical thinking, organization, planning, understanding research,flexibility, acting as a role model and being a team player. Private SchoolTeachers May Need More In many cases, however, private schoolteachers need to know and be even more. For example, because pri- vate schoolsare often faith based, those teachers and leaders need to act as faith leaders and models offaith. Private school educators may also need morepreparation in legal compliance, accounting andfinance than dotheir public schoolpeers. Teacher Prep ProgramsCan Prepare Private School EducatorsBetter With a few simple changes, educa- schools. They couldcross-list courses finance, law and even theology—and give students credit for taking them. In states with large private school populations or large private school choice programs, the demand for well-trained private school teachers might be high enough for colleges of education to consider offering prep programs specifically geared to the private sector. Creating new, stand- alone, private school-focused programs might also makesensefor reli- giouscolleges aligned to elementary andsecondary schoolsthat sharetheir faith tradition. Learn More For further information about this report or school choice policies in America, go to www.edchoice.org.

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