by Dennis Banks

1. What are the structures or institutions available in your country to conduct (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/professional development?

Higher Ed institutions
Colleges of education
Private agencies (eg. Teach for America)

2. Which institutions are responsible for ensuring the quality and effectiveness in your country in (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/professional development?

State Education Departments (different names in different states), Higher Education systems administration, NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education)

INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium), Federal Department of Education, Specialty Professional Associations (NCSS, NSTA, NCTE, ACEI, NCTM, etc)

3. Which institutions are responsible for policies in your country/region of (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/professional development?

Same as #2, with addition of state legislatures

4. What studies or evaluations have been completed in your country/region for (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/ professional development?

Most recent study involving relationship of teacher preparation and student achievement was released on April 15:

http://www.schoolredesign.net/srn/server.php?idx=934

A quick search of ERIC shows thousands of studies involving the evaluation of teacher education.  Question needs to be more specific to be answerable.

5. What effective practices exist in your country/region for (a) pre- service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/ professional development?

Depending upon who is asked, the NCATE and/or INTASC standards would serve as models of effective practice.  There are also several books on Best Practices in the classroom and 10000s of articles on same.  Very broad question.

6. What ways have institutions in your country/region used to monitor, be accountable and/or measure effectiveness of (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/professional development?

Accreditation process, involving self-study and assessment to meet national standards such as NCATE, INTASC, and/or State Education reviews on a regular basis (generally every 5-10 years)

7. What strengths exist in your country/region for including human rights education into (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in- service teacher training/ professional development?

Preexisting structures for teacher education; culture of professional development in US schools; existing structure of accreditation of teacher education programs; national standards within content areas; state standards include human rights in approximately 50% of states.

8. What weaknesses exist in your country/region for (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/ professional development?

No national policy, state decisions, leading to 50+ separate systems with differing sets of standards and enforcement

Uniformity may not be the goal, but universality is also difficult/impossible

Teacher shortages in selected content and/or localities leads to lowering of standards for certification or untrained/non-certified teachers in classrooms

9. What opportunities are there in your country/region for human rights education in (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in-service teacher training/ professional development?

Because of the lack of specified curriculum in teacher education programs, it would be possible to add whatever subject area/theme/content the program feels appropriate.  Social justice is an increasingly more "popular" topic within education programs currently- human rights could/should easily fall within the scope of such a theme.

Human rights can be implied as a mandate within the content standards for social studies, science, and English.  Making this mandate more specific and accessible should not be difficult.

Human rights appears within state standards for 25+ states already; models exist to share with other state systems.

10. What are threats/obstacles exist in your country/region for human rights education in (a) pre-service teacher training and (b) in- service teacher training/ professional development?

Adding anything to a system that is already perceived to be overloaded is difficult. The number of different interest groups/bureaucracies/agencies that would be involved is outrageous.