Improving Teacher Education Programs

Good news for the quality of teacher education programs: the NCATE, which accredits about half of the schools of education nationwide, has issued new standards for reaccreditation. Under the new plan, schools can reaccredit in one of two ways:

1. Commit to raising their performance level on one of NCATE's six performance strands
2. Undertake a major research project on methods of improving teacher preparation

In light of what we know about the general quality of teacher education programs (it's not high), these are welcome steps. In the end, it is the quality of these traditional teacher education programs, where the vast majority of teachers are still spending their time and money, that will determine the quality of our teacher workforce.

Student Quality in Teacher Education Programs: What GRE Data Tells Us

While I'm not a regular reader of the Indianapolis Business Journal, I was intrigued by this recent article on student quality in teacher education programs.  The Journal looked at students entering undergraduate education majors as well as those beginning graduate education programs.  Included were three interesting findings:

• Education majors in Indiana colleges and universities ranked roughly 5% lower than their peers in other majors, based on SAT scores
• Based on GRE scores nationwide, those entering elementary education graduate programs are roughly 8% below their peers in other fields
• Based on the same nationwide GRE scores, those entering secondary education graduate programs are roughly 10% above their peers in other fields

Where teacher certification is concerned, there are multiple conclusions to be drawn from data like this.  On the one hand, it suggests we need more rigorous certification standards.  If education is attracting less than stellar minds, we need to do what we can to see that only the deserving make it into the classroom.  Data like this, along with the recent debacle on the Massachusetts math tests, show us the harsh truth: if certification was easier, we'd have law quality students becoming teachers.  

This said, I tend to draw a different conclusion from such data.  I see here further proof of the culture of education programs.  They are, quite rightly, regarded as unchallenging and undesirable by the best students.  We could change this problem from the bottom up, by trying to recruit more high quality students into education programs, or we could go at it from the top down, using a TFA/Teachers Fellows approach, where we bring high quality individuals into the classroom and let them give education a new face.  If we follow this line of reasoning, we need to continue pushing for alternative certification programs and other methods of getting high quality individuals into our classrooms quickly. 

A Quality Teacher Certification Program in Florida

Given my frequent broad-stroke bashing of teacher education programs, I think it's only fair to share news of this University of Florida program, which is apparently doing great work.

For full coverage and more stories like it, be sure to check out Advancing the Teaching Profession.

Education's Iron Triangle

This recent defense of traditional education programs, written by an expert from one such education program, highlights one of the fundamental problems in American education. In the present case, we have Dr. Thomas Brady purporting to offer an impartial and academic analysis of a system in which he and his institution hold a major financial stake. How can we possibly trust education schools to provide reasoned analysis our credentialing system, when it offers the only rationalization for their continued existence?

Though it gets less attention in Intro American Politics than the defense industry does, this dirty little triangle is a major impediment to reform. We have our powerful interest group - teachers unions - our trusted overseers - education schools - and our regulators in federal and state departments of education. Unions send a steady stream of their future members through ed schools, whose programs provide steady cash to their home institutions. These ed schools, in turn, provide intellectual support for a basically indefensible teacher certification system. This certification system, in turn, provides a raison d'etre for our sprawling education bureaucracy. How can anyone connected with this system have real incentive to blow the whistle on its inefficiencies?

Update: Okay, so I'm not the first to use the term for education. Though these folks and I seem to be speaking to different issues.