Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-l] Arthur Levine's Critique of Teacher Ed



Elia Powers (2006a), in a recent "Inside Higher Ed" article titled "New Critique Of Teacher Ed," reports on Arthur Levine's criticism of teacher education. A severely truncated version is bracketed below by lines "PPPPPPP. . . .". My inserts at ". . . [insert]. . ."]:

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Arthur] Levine. . .[former president of Teachers College at Columbia University; see e.g., <http://www.woodrow.org/about/president.php>], an outspoken critic of the state of teacher education. . . is . . . the lone author of a controversial report . . . . .[Levine (2006)]. . . released Monday that calls for major changes in how and where future teachers are trained during their undergraduate and graduate educations.

More than half of teacher education graduates come from programs that have low admission and graduation standards, said Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. . . <http://www.woodrow.org/>. . .. The faculty members who teach the future teachers are sometimes years removed from being in a classroom other than their own, and graduates often emerge ill-prepared to start their teaching careers, according to the report.

In "Educating School Teachers," the second in a four-part series of policy papers . . . .[<http://www.edschools.org/reports_leaders.htm>]. . . on the education of future educators, Levine describes teacher education as a "chaotic" field largely lacking in uniform standards and accountability. The first report, "Educating School Leaders," was released in 2005.

Levine is hardly the first academic to dish on teacher education, a field that has been criticized for its lack of serious scholarship and proven results. Earlier this year, AACTE held a press conference . . .[Powers (2006b)]. . . . inside the Capitol to dispel what Robinson . . .[Sharon Robinson, president and chief executive of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education <http://www.aacte.org/>]. . . said are the myths about teacher education programs.

For his latest report, Levine and a team of researchers visited 28 colleges with teacher education programs and surveyed deans, faculty, alumni and principals. Levine based his analysis on those responses, as well as criteria including school mission, curriculum and faculty composition.

According to Levine's report, more than three of five alumni of teacher education programs surveyed said that their schools didn't prepare them to cope with the realities of the profession. The report indicates that secondary school principals generally gave the education schools low grades in training students on how to handle diverse classrooms.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Levine said many of the education schools are merely "cash cows" that are forced to enroll too many students and lower admission standards. Robinson said that she agrees with Levine that colleges need to stop the practice of taking money generated from those colleges and dispersing it to other departments.

Levine's proposal also calls for education schools to adopt a five-year model in which students major as an undergraduate in a discipline other than education and finish with a yearlong master's degree in education. He pointed to the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. . .[<http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/>]. . . as a college that uses this model and emphasizes pedagogical research.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the report, Levine calls out the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education . . .[<http://www.ncate.org/>; see NCATE's critique of Levine (2006) at <http://www.ncate.org/public/0912_LevineReport.asp?ch=148>]. . . for having insufficiently rigorous guidelines. NCATE has come under fire . . . .[Powers (2006c)]. . . for various issues relating to its standards. Levine said his research shows that there appears to be no difference in classroom performance for teachers who were trained in NCATE-accredited programs and those who were not.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Levine said that education schools should embrace the fact that they are professional schools and make clinical experience a priority from the start.

Responding to criticism that his report is a regurgitation of past education school critiques, Levine said: "This report is written with tremendous optimism. We've heard some of these issues in the past and we haven't acted on them."
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

The entire report is well worth reading and is only a mouse click away at <http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/19/teachered>. Some discussion-list subscribers may wish to contribute to the "Comments" section at the end of Powers's report.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES
Levine, A. 2006. "Educating School Teachers: Executive Summary," Education Schools Project, online at <http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Educating_Teachers_Exec_Summ.pdf> (68 kB).

Powers, E. 2006a. "New Critique of Teacher Ed," Inside Higher Ed. 19 September, online at <http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/19/teachered>.

Powers, E. 2006b. "A Platform to Promote Teacher Ed," Inside Higher Ed, 16 June, online at <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/16/teachered>.

Powers, E. 2006c. "A Spirited Disposition Debate," Inside Higher Ed, 6 June, online at <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/06/disposition>.