By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; A08
This should be a shining moment for education schools. Never has the nation paid so much attention to improving the quality of teaching. Yet the institutions that produce teachers have never faced so much criticism.
"Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world," said Arthur Levine, former president of Columbia University's Teachers College. "Like the fabled Wild West town, it is unruly and chaotic."
Stanford University educational historian David F. Labaree wrote in a recent book: "Institutionally, the ed school is the Rodney Dangerfield of higher education; it don't get no respect. The ed school is the butt of jokes in the university, where professors portray it as an intellectual wasteland."
The attacks have become so frequent and intense that some educators say they have gone too far. But a growing number of educators say ed schools fail to give teachers enough background in their subject matter, fail to prepare them for the difficulties of urban schools and fail to recruit the best students.
For a study on ed schools released in September, Levine surveyed administrators with firsthand knowledge of these problems: principals. Only two of every five principals surveyed said ed schools were preparing teachers very well or moderately well to get new curriculum and performance standards into the classroom. Only one-third said their teachers were very or moderately well prepared for maintaining classroom order. Only one-fifth said their teachers were that well prepared to work with parents.
There is little agreement on what should be done to improve the ed schools. Levine suggested that the leading accreditation organization for ed schools should be replaced by one that pays closer attention to the performance of graduates. Many ed schools bristled at that idea.
Other critics have suggested replacing ed schools with training institutes in school districts. Some call for an expansion of Teach for America, which puts young college graduates into the classroom with minimal preparation and lets them learn on the job.
But rethinking teacher education does not appear to a high priority at many universities. Some experts wonder if ed schools will ever be more than hiring halls with a few textbooks.
"The good news about ed schools is that they are not powerful enough to do much harm to American education," Labaree wrote in his 2004 book "The Trouble With Ed Schools." He added: "The bad news is that they are also not powerful enough to do much good for a system of schooling that could really use their help."
There are slightly more than 1,200 education schools, colleges of education or departments of education. They award about one of every 12 bachelor's degrees in the United States, a quarter of all master's degrees and 15 percent of all doctorates. No other branch of academia is so large.
Ed schools typically give prospective teachers instruction in the theory and skills that will make them effective in the classroom. They also give teachers opportunities to practice for several weeks under the supervision of veteran teachers. At the end of the program, students receive certificates that allow them entry into public school systems.
The traditional ed school path is not the only route into the teaching profession. In 47 states and the District, prospective teachers, especially career-changers, can get credentials through alternative tracks that take less time. Still, most of those initiatives are associated with ed schools.
Levine found bright spots in the ed school landscape. He praised the five-year teacher education program at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. The U-Va. students get several chances to teach as undergraduates and spend the fall of their fifth-year teaching full time.
But Levine said ed schools are often cash cows for universities, collecting tuition from students who can be taught on the cheap. Unlike medical schools, they don't need expensive equipment or highly paid specialist professors.
Levine also concluded that ed schools that grant doctorates have a stronger track record than those that don't. The latter schools, which award degrees no higher than the master's level, produce most of the nation's teachers. According to the study, public school students demonstrate significantly more growth in math achievement and somewhat more growth in reading achievement when their teachers came from doctoral universities. Levine proposed expanding teacher training programs at those universities, which are more expensive and selective.
Sharon P. Robinson, president and chief executive of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, said that proposal was off-base.
"We need to be more inclusive than that," she said in a statement. "Like other professions, education must rely more heavily on the less selective institutions to build the bulk of its workforce."
Said Thomas Powell, president of Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg: "We want to go after students who are from neighborhoods where we want to have teachers." Powell said he wanted to offer them good liberal arts courses, good courses in their specialty subjects and good teaching skills.
Arthur E. Wise, president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, dismissed Levine's accusation that his organization did not pay enough attention to how well each education school's graduates perform in the classroom. He said that Levine's data were old and that his organization now requires ed schools to "provide proof that candidates have gained the knowledge and skills to help all students learn."
But Wise endorsed Levine's view that ed schools should borrow a page from medical schools by attaching themselves to public schools with well-trained, veteran teachers just as medical schools attach themselves to hospitals with time-tested doctors. This would, Wise said, "provide a structured environment to better prepare candidates and new teachers for today's schools and the diverse children in them."