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Reflections on Preservice Preparation: Impressions from the National Survey

One strong impression is that preservice education is still a muscular enterprise. Between 1975 and 1977, the National Council for Educational Statistics sponsored a survey of Preservice Teacher Education. * In the fall of 1975, four types of questionnaires (one for faculty, one for students, one for program heads, and one for institutional heads) were delivered to a sample of 238 of the institutions which prepare teachers, and within each of those institutions to a sample of faculty and students. All types of questionnaires were returned by 147 of those institutions, with nearly 200 returning at least one of the questionnaires. Case studies were conducted to crossvalidate the findings and the data were analyzed partly at Stanford University and partly by Lewin & Associates, Inc. of Washington, D.C. The rate of response to items was excellent. For example, 26 of the 29 clusters of items in the Faculty Questionnaire were answered by more than 90 percent of the respondents. In addition, nearly all respondents completed the entire questionnaire. The nonresponse rate within questionnaires did not increase as the questionnaire proceeded. What follows are some overall impressions from examining all of the data. In some cases, these impressions are drawn from the examination of a single variable, in other cases by examining a cluster of findings. In still other cases, these impressions represent an extrapolation from our knowledge of the general context of teacher education and our sense of the meaning of the findings. In three subsequent reports, we will deal more specifically with the characteristics of the institutions, faculty, and students, and draw conclusions in the form of suggested models for improving teacher education. In this series, we will share both those findings which surprised us and those which confirmed our perceptions. The mixture of confirming and surprising results has been very stimulating to us, and we hope our colleagues will react similarly. One strong impression is that preservice teacher education is still a muscular enterprise. More than 1,400 institutions continue to prepare teachers and they are staffed by well over 40,000 faculty members working with half a million students at all levels. Between 1973