Patterns of Cooperation in Administering State Teacher-Education and Certification Programs

Cooperative processes are basic to edu cation in a democracy. They are, however, not necessarily inherent. Like any other worth-while achievement in the area of self-determination, they must be planned for and worked for. Too often lip service is given to the democratic process in edu cation, while the easier method of indi vidual decision is followed. The accom panying article describes the efforts, through advisory councils on teacher edu cation and certification, of state depart ments of education to provide democratic and cooperative means of exercising the legal authority delegated to them by state legislatures regarding teacher educa tion and certification. Further, the article describes the work of state education as sociations, through commissions on teach er education and professional standards, to enlist the full membership of the teach ing profession in the study of standards and in recommendations to the state legal authority regarding desirable action pro grams.

The authors have had long interest in and experience with both procedures. Mr. Umstattd is Chairman of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, University of Texas, Austin. He has served on a number of committees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and in 1950 was the president of the National Association of College Teachers of Education. Mr. Stinnett, now Executive Secretary of the National Commission on Teacher Educa tion and Professional Standards, served for nearly a decade as State Director of Teacher Education and Certification in Arkansas and has worked intensively with both advisory councils and state commis sions.