The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's inflammatory introduction to William Damon's article in the Gadfly's September 8 issue is simply wrong. It said that "policymakers might reconsider whether being accredited by NCATE is evidence of quality or something far more sinister."
Damon's paper raises questions about NCATE's use of the term "dispositions." The article apparently springs from a single dispute at a college in which a professor allegedly attempted to press her own ideology on students. No NCATE standard sanctions ideological indoctrination. Responsible reporting does not impute "sinister" motives and charge "arm-twisting and mind-control" based on a single alleged event, the facts of which are still in dispute. The media attempted, without success, to tie the event to NCATE dispositions. Yet Fordham still persists.
NCATE is composed of serious education professionals, policymakers, and public representatives across the nation who volunteer their time to develop and apply standards for the improvement of teacher education. It appears that the Gadfly is pushing an agenda to discredit NCATE.
Why Dispositions?
NCATE incorporated dispositions into its performance-based standards in 2000 as part of its inclusion of the standards and principles developed by INTASC, a consortium of 34 states sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers. INTASC's Model Standards for Beginning Teacher Licensing, Assessment and Development represent a shared view among the states and within the profession of what constitutes competent beginning teaching. Each INTASC standard includes two or more dispositions.
These standards are the foundation upon which NCATE developed its expectation for colleges to develop dispositions. It is an attempt to get at the "softer side" of teaching. Teachers could have appropriate content knowledge and skill in sharing that content knowledge, but still use inappropriate behaviors in the classroom, such as yelling or showing favoritism, that would spell disaster for their students. NCATE's standards say that "dispositions are not usually assessed directly; instead they are assessed along with other performances in candidates' work with students, families, and communities." In other words, in student teaching evaluations and other performance settings, dispositions are examined as the teacher interacts with students, parents, and other educators.
NCATE has been careful to have a general definition in this relatively new arena to allow universities and their faculty latitude to go beyond knowledge and skill expectations to beliefs and characteristics clearly related to a candidate's ability to positively affect the learning of the students they are to teach. Damon is apparently not aware that the teacher education community has defined dispositions in a way that does not conform to his definition. In the Handbook of Child Psychology, (which Damon edits), dispositions are related to "personality." However, the teaching profession has defined dispositions for teaching in another way. NCATE does not refer to "personality" or infer that its use of dispositions means deep-rooted personality traits such as shyness.
NCATE agrees with Damon that it is not acceptable to assess particular attitudes and beliefs related to social/political ideologies. Sometimes the core values of teaching conflict with the personal beliefs and attitudes of a teacher candidate, and that can affect students in negative ways. Should an institution recommend that a person be licensed to teach who displays destructive behavior toward students?
Dispositions based on the core values of teaching are not "Orwellian mind-control" techniques. They are simply characteristics of good teaching. NCATE does not sanction institutions to assess candidates on their belief systems, as Damon suggests might be the case. Rather, NCATE encourages institutions to seek evidence of dispositions like the following:
- The teacher understands how participation supports commitment, and is dedicated to the expression and use of democratic values in the classroom;
- The teacher is sensitive to community and cultural norms; and
- The teacher makes students feel valued for their potential as people, and helps them learn to value each other.
Dispositions are important in all professions. Other accreditors expect institutions to assess them. For example, teaching hospitals evaluate residents' dispositions, and others have similar checks.
Damon ends his article by agreeing with NCATE's stance that "it is acceptable to assess personal characteristics that are essential to the job of teaching, including character virtues such as honesty, responsibility, and diligence. Assessments of such should be based on definitive behavioral evidence of the presence or lack of the virtue in question."
NCATE agrees, and that is exactly what NCATE intends in its inclusion of dispositions as a part of what candidates are evaluated on by the institutions they attend.
Arthur E. Wise is president of NCATE.