Preparing America’s Teachers: A History

The preparation of America’s teachers is among the foremost issues facing education in the United States today. In this compelling account, James W. Fraser, an eminent historian of education, takes readers through two centuries of teacher preparation to uncover its development from colonial times to current standards-based models. Fraser examines a broad array of institutional arrangements, such as more familiar “normal schools” and less well-known arrangements, including teacher institutes and high school programs in rapidly expanding cities, segregated communities, rural areas, and Indian reservations. For any reader wishing to understand how to prepare teachers and reform schools, Fraser’s incisive survey provides much-needed historical grounding.