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High student achievement and strong school performance depend heavily on quality teaching. Yet, alarmingly, most of the programs that prepare the nation's teachers cling to an outdated, historically flawed vision of teacher education that is at odds with a society remade by economic changes, demographic shifts, technological advances and globalization.
While exemplary programs do exist around the nation, too many teacher education programs are engaged in the pursuit of irrelevance. They suffer from low admission and graduation standards. Their faculties, curricula and research are disconnected from school practice and practitioners. Program quality varies widely, with the majority of teachers prepared in lower-quality programs, and state regulations and accreditation standards are insufficient to maintain quality.
These are among the findings of Educating School Teachers, a five-year study of the quality of teacher education programs in the U.S. that I conducted as part of the Education Schools Project. The study included national surveys of principals, teacher education graduates, education school deans and faculty, site visits to more than 25 institutions, and separate analyses exploring the relationship between teacher education and student achievement.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but after two decades of fingerpointing, we have yet to improve teacher education.
What we found is a field like the Wild West's Dodge City-unruly and chaotic. Too often, anything goes. At one state university we visited, the majority of prospective teachers were underprepared students from poorly performing local schools, admitted under low admissions standards, taking dumbed-down versions of traditional liberal arts classes. They arranged their own student-teaching assignments, often in failing schools without top-notch teachers to learn from, and they were coached to pass state licensure tests, on which they generally performed in the bottom quartile of all of the state's teacher candidates. Not only has this program not been shut down or cut back, it was recently accredited and will soon offer doctoral degrees.
Who is to blame-the university operating the program, the state rewarding its failure, the accreditors using such misguided standards, or the districts hiring its graduates? There is plenty of blame to go around, but after two decades of fingerpointing, we have yet to improve teacher education.
Part of the problem is that a fundamental difference in philosophy still divides those who believe teaching is a profession like law or medicine, requiring a substantial amount of education before becoming a practitioner, and those who think teaching is a craft like journalism, learned principally on the job. Traditional programs vie with nontraditional programs, undergraduate programs compete with graduate programs, increased regulation is juxtaposed against deregulation, universities struggle with new teacher education providers, and teachers are alternately educated for a profession and a craft. Largely because of this basic schism, as many as three-quarters of the nation's teacher education programs, according to our analysis, are plagued by deep, often interrelated problems.
Inadequate Preparation
Many students graduate from teacher education programs without the skills and knowledge to become effective teachers. More than three out of five teacher education alumni surveyed (62 percent) report that schools of education do not prepare their graduates to cope with the realities of today's classrooms. Only 41 percent believe they were prepared to integrate technology into the grade level or subject they teach, only 43 percent feel prepared to work with parents, and a scant 27 percent of teachers surveyed feel they can adequately address the needs of students with limited English proficiency.
A fundamental difference in philosophy still divides those who believe teaching is a profession like law or medicine, requiring a substantial amount of education before becoming a practitioner, and those who think teaching is a craft like journalism, learned principally on the job.
Principals also give teacher education programs low grades. Fewer than half of principals surveyed thought that schools of education were preparing teachers very well or moderately well to integrate technology into their teaching (46 percent), use student performance assessment techniques (42 percent), and implement curriculum and performance standards (41 percent). Only one-third said that their teachers are very or moderately well prepared to maintain order in the classroom (33 percent) or to address the needs of students with disabilities (30 percent). A shockingly low percentage of principals said that their teachers were very or moderately well prepared to meet the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds (28 percent), to work with parents (21 percent), and to help students with limited English proficiency (16 percent).
