Elizabeth Chesler

In the main quad of Stanford University...

I am the program administrator for the Stanford Teacher Education Program

(STEP) in the School of Education (SUSE).

                                                  

                                                                                                                             

Contact me:
Email - echesler@stanford.edu
Phone - 650.725.0564

Fax - 650.725.7264
Location - CERAS Building, rm 305

 

Following is some information on STEP (for more details click on the logos above):

The Stanford Teacher Education Program seeks to prepare and support teachers to teach diverse learners to high intellectual, academic and social standards by creating equitable classrooms and schools. This mission is increasingly important to the sustenance of a democratic society.  Schools must become dramatically more successful with a wide range of learners if our citizens are to acquire the sophisticated skills they need to participate in a knowledge-based society.  Teacher expertise and effectiveness are critical to the success of education. Growing evidence indicates that teacher quality is one of the most powerful influences on student achievement - more powerful than almost any other school resource and as influential as student background factors like poverty, language background, or family status. Higher expectations for student learning and greater diversity among students create a need for educators to be more knowledgeable than ever before. The kind of teaching needed to help students learn to think critically, create, solve complex problems, and master ambitious subject matter content is much more demanding than that needed to impart routine skills.  In an era when the student population is more diverse than ever before, teachers are being asked to achieve these goals for all children, not just the 20% who have traditionally been selected into gifted and talented or honors programs.  Only educators who are diagnostic about learning and extremely skillful in using a wide range of teaching methods can respond appropriately to diverse students' needs and enable them to succeed at challenging learning goals.