Teacher Certification

The Teacher Education Council

The NYU Teacher Education Council, co-chaired by the Deans of Steinhardt and the College of Arts and Science, brings together members of the diverse departments involved in teacher education twice yearly in order to strengthen collaboration, ensure high quality, and engage in strategic planning.

Assumptions Guiding the Council’s Work

The strength of American higher education is dependent ultimately on the quality of teaching in American schools.

For this reason, it is in the interest of the whole universitiy to care about the quality of the recruitment, selection, and preparation of teacher candidates; and to hold its own teacher education programs to the highest standards.

It takes a university to educate a teacher.

Effective teacher education demands strong academic preparation – in content, pedagogy, and the integration of the two. This in turn requires coordination and collaboration between the faculty of arts and sciences and the faculty of education.

Effective teacher education programs apprentice their students to thoughtful communities of practice.

Students learning to teach also need well designed clinical experiences within school-based communities of practice. And they need entry-level mentoring. A strong school-university partnership can provide these things, when it is established on the basis of mutual support and mutual benefit, and when it involves the whole university.

Effective teacher education programs continually monitor their effectiveness in order to ensure their standards and the teaching quality of their graduates.

Good programs have systems in place to align what they mean to do and what they actually do. These systems articulate and tune standards; design for quality and reliability; generate and examine input, process, and outcome data; follow graduates into their careers; and do whatever seems necessary to make improvements as needed.

Members of the Council for the 2011-2012 academic year are as follows:

  • Pamela Abder, Science Education
  • Susan Koff, Dance Education
  • Sarah Beck, English Education
  • Richard Magill, Chair of teaching & Learning
  • Paul Boghossian, Philosophy
  • Joseph McDonald, English Education
  • Mary Brabeck, Dean of Steinhardt & Council Co-Chair
  • Judith Miller, French
  • Sylvan Cappell, Mathematics
  • Allen Mincer, Physics
  • David Darts, Arts & Art Education
  • Pamela Morris, Applied Psychology
  • David Elliot, Music & Music Education
  • Chuck Newman, Mathematics
  • James Fraser, History & Social Studies Education
  • Jalal Shatah. Mathematics
  • Nicholas Geacintov, Medicine
  • Martin Simon, Mathematics & Elementary Education
  • Fred Greenleaf, Mathematics
  • Clifford Siskin, English
  • John Guillory, English
  • Leslie Siskin, Administration & Leadership
  • Trace Jordan, Chemistry
  • Stephen Small, Biology
  • Susan Kirch, Science & Elementary Education
  • Gabrielle Starr, Dean of CAS ( Co-Chair
  • Daniel Stein, Dean for Science
  • Frank Tang, Foreign Language Education
  • Phillip Taylor, Educational Theatre
  • Beth Weitzman, Vice Dean, Steinhardt
  • Orit Zaslavsky, Mathematics Education
  • Jonathan Zimmerman, History of Education

NYU Teacher Education Working Group

The NYU Teacher Education Working Group (TEWG) is the working arm of the Teacher Education Council, and meets three times per semester.

Members of the Working Group for the 2011-2012 academic year are as follows:

  • Catherine Milne, Science Education
  • David Darts, Art Education
  • Dipti Desai, Art Education
  • Erich Dietrich, Associate Dean for Global and Academic Affairs
  • James Fraser, History and Education
  • Lee Frissell, Director, Office of Field Projects
  • Heather Herrera, Director for Curriculum Development
  • Susan Koff, Dance Education
  • Karen Krahulik, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Arts and Science
  • Richard Magill, Chair, Department of Teaching and Learning
  • Joseph McDonald, Chair, Teacher Education Working Group
  • Erin E O’Connor, Early Childhood Education
  • Frank Pignatosi, Director, Office of Clinical Studies
  • Mark Perez, Certification Officer
  • Rosa Pietanza, Master Teacher and Coordinator of Partnership Schools
  • Ira Shankman, Music Education
  • Diana Turk, Social Studies Education,
  • Philip Taylor, Educational Theatre
  • Robert Tobias, Director of the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning
  • Lindsay Wright, Associate Dean for Planning and Communication
  • Jonathan Zimmerman, History and Education