{"id":80945,"date":"2013-07-31T08:31:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T12:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=80945"},"modified":"2023-09-12T16:43:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T20:43:08","slug":"teacher-education-expert-suzanne-wilson-joins-uconn-faculty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/07\/teacher-education-expert-suzanne-wilson-joins-uconn-faculty\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher Education Expert Suzanne Wilson Joins UConn Faculty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nationally<\/a>
Nationally renowned scholar Suzanne Wilson joins the University from Michigan State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Few topics in the world of education have as much resonance in the national conversation as the quality of the people entrusted with teaching American children: New standards, preparation, and evaluation methods for teachers are being discussed on an almost daily basis.<\/p>\n

But Suzanne Wilson, a nationally renowned expert on teacher preparation and professional development who will join UConn\u2019s Neag School of Education from Michigan State University in the fall, says that\u2019s not an entirely novel development.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve gone through a number of periods where the public was concerned about the preparation of teachers,\u201d she says. \u201cYou had it in the 1920s, in the 1930s, in the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s new at this time, however, is the number of new institutions offering teacher preparation; the changes in school districts themselves, as models like charter schools become more common; and the unprecedented national pressure on schools. The result, Wilson says, is that the people under the microscope can start to feel overburdened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accountability movement has hit education particularly hard, and has raised serious questions about what schools are actually for,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to say we want to hold everyone accountable, but it\u2019s another to decide what your standards and measurements are going to be. I think teachers have felt really besieged in holding onto what they feel is right for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the debate over schools and teacher evaluations continues, Wilson says it\u2019s important not to lose sight of what\u2019s been proven successful in the best teacher preparation programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cClose, intimate, two-way relationships with the schools,\u201d she says. \u201cSchools are busy places, and so when somebody is becoming a teacher they really need to do it in a structured, protected way, and that\u2019s what a good teacher preparation program will help you do. You don\u2019t want to throw a prospective teacher into a classroom and say, \u2018Sink or swim.\u2019 But universities can\u2019t do a good job preparing teachers unless they\u2019re working hand-in-hand with the people in the schools who see all the issues in education on a daily basis, including how quickly things change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson comes to UConn from Michigan State University, where she was a University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Teacher Education. She received her undergraduate degree in history and American Studies from Brown University, and also has a master\u2019s degree in statistics and Ph.D. in education from Stanford University. Before joining MSU, she was the first director of the Teacher Assessment Project, which created prototypes used for assessments by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things about UConn that struck me as really promising and exciting is that you have healthy collaboration and relationships with the disciplines outside the school of education,\u201d she says. \u201cThe whole university is involved in teacher education, and that\u2019s one hallmark of a high quality environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson comes to UConn at an auspicious time, shortly after the passage of landmark education legislation that created a role for the Neag School in helping to develop teacher evaluation models in the state. Wilson, who\u2019s done research in Connecticut previously, says she\u2019s looking forward to seeing how the state moves forward in the constantly changing realm of education policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, I just want to get to know UConn\u2019s programs and people, and I want to hang out in the schools of Connecticut, in the schools where new teachers are learning to teach,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really going to be an interesting time in education not just in Connecticut, but around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wilson, a nationally renowned scholar, joins the University from Michigan State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":81193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[131],"class_list":["post-80945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 16:16:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80945"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204638,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80945\/revisions\/204638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/81193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80945"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=80945"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=80945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}