New York is among eight states in a pilot program to transform teacher education and preparation to emphasize in-class skills.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher (ZIHM’-fuhr) is part of an expert panel releasing a report Tuesday in Washington that calls for teacher education to be turned “upside down.”

The reform would make teacher education and continuing education a shared responsibility of schools and universities.

The pilot program is being done in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee as well as New York.

National teachers unions are part of the project, which hopes to spread the most successful programs in the nation to every state.