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]. . ."]:
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[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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.