Teacher Training Programs Are Mediocre: National Study

Posted by Milton Recht:

From The Washington Post, "University programs that train U.S. teachers get mediocre marks in first-ever ratings" by Lyndsey Layton:

The vast majority of the 1,430 education programs that prepare the nation’s K-12 teachers are mediocre, according to a first-ever ranking that immediately touched off a firestorm.

Released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington-based advocacy group, the rankings are part of a $5 million project funded by major U.S. foundations. Education secretaries in 21 states have endorsed the report, but some universities and education experts quickly assailed the review as incomplete and inaccurate.***While debate swirls about the validity of the ratings of individual schools, there is broad agreement among educators and public officials — from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to governors to unions — that the country is failing to adequately train the 200,000 people who become teachers each year.

"We don’t know how to prepare teachers," said Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College at Columbia University and author of a scathing critique of teacher preparation.***Many education schools suffer from the same maladies, Levine said. "Admission standards are low, no connection between clinical work and academic work and some of the faculty haven’t been in a school for years," he said.

A free download of the report is available.