American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education: "Professional Relationships: Reality and Action"

Al Shanker discusses the need for changes in teacher training, and he calls for teacher colleges to join together with teachers, parents, administration, supervisors, and other interested parties in a coalition Shanker has formed to accomplish various education goals. Shanker cites a danger in criticizing teacher training and public schools to the point that small, independent education experiments are justified. Rather, he advocates for partnership over criticism and for improvement within the system instead of moving outside of it. Shanker further acknowledges that the situation many teachers encounter in urban school systems forces them to employ survival techniques rather than the teaching techniques they have learned in their training. This proves, he asserts, that training needs to adapt to address the real world situations teachers are going to encounter. One suggestion he has is to establish an internship program, placing teachers in the classroom to gain experience. Shanker also briefly touches on issues like testing, early childhood education, and lobbying the government for more funding.

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