ASU education dean gives expert testimony to US Senate committee

Mari Koerner, dean of ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, recently testified before a congressional committee about the importance of teacher preparation in the nation’s education colleges. According to Cronkite News Service, Koerner appeared before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Improved academic performance in kindergarten through high school begins with better teacher-preparedness programs at higher education institutions, Koerner explained. She was joined in the two-hour hearing by four other education experts who also gave testimony to the panel.

“It takes an entire university, an entire community, to prepare a teacher,” said Koerner. She also referenced ASU’s nationally recognized iTeachAZ year-long student teaching residency, which provides future teachers with twice the amount of classroom experience as other education programs.

According to the Cronkite story, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said she worries about a federal program that gives grants of up to $16,000 to undergraduates pursuing a teaching career. The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant program provides up to $4,000 per year to students who agree to teach for four years and to meet other requirements.

ASU is one of the nation’s largest TEACH-grant beneficiaries. Koerner said the federal grants are maintaining the influx of students to Teachers College each year.

“The TEACH grants are essential for us to recruit the kids that we want to bring in teacher education,” Koerner said.