K-12 Group Letter of Support for the PREP ACT

This week, AASA and a group of K-12 organizations issued a letter of support for the Preparing and Retaining Education Professionals (PREP) Act to Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee. The letter, which was led by NSBA and signed by AASA, AFT, CCSSO, NAESP, NASBE, NASSP and NEA recognizes that more must be done to stop increasing levels of educator attrition and prepare beginning teachers to meet the needs of diverse student populations. The letter calls on the Senate HELP committee to include the bill in any forthcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (which, according to the rumors, should drop any day now). 

As you may recall from our last blog post on this issue, the bipartisan PREP act provides a practical approach for updating Title II of HEA by incentivizing teacher preparation programs to develop teacher quality partnerships between elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions; increasing recruitment of diverse educators; and promoting clinical based practices such as teacher residency, induction and mentoring models. The bill offers Congress a path to ensure that there are enough teachers and principals with the right skills and tools to prepare students for the future, while also minimizing the burdens of implementation by supporting local and state policy and practice improvements already underway. AASA was proud to magnify the voice of superintendents on this issue and signed onto the joint letter, which can be viewed here.