A New Way to Train Teachers: Brent Maddin
When Brent Maddin, Ed.M.’07, Ed.D.’11, thought about his
career path, he envisioned working on a faculty of education and eventually
directing a teacher training program. What Maddin couldn’t have pictured was
that before he graduated HGSE, he would have accomplished both of these
things.
It was about three years into his doctoral studies when he
was recruited by Norman Atkins, the founder of Uncommon Schools, and Dave
Levin, cofounder of KIPP Schools, to move to New York to help start a new kind
of teacher training program. That program is now known as the Relay
Graduate School of Education (RGSE) — an independent graduate school
focused exclusively on teacher preparation and certification in New York City
and Newark, N.J.
“It happened so quickly. Suddenly my 25-year plan was
materializing overnight,” Maddin says.
RGSE is anything but traditional in its approach to teacher
education, which is part of what really attracted Maddin, a former Teach For
America (TFA) science teacher, to the school. As provost, Maddin oversees all
curricular and instructional aspects of RSGE’s academic program, which includes
an emphasis on concrete techniques and the use of video to share the leading
practices of exemplary teachers. In addition, RGSE’s master’s program is the
first ever to require its graduate students to demonstrate proficiency and
student achievement while teaching full-time in their K–12 classrooms to earn a
master of arts in teaching (M.A.T.) degree.
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