As a gradute of a teacher education program, I disagree with many assertions of the report, but agree whole-heartedly that what is needed are more field experiences during the program. How a person is expected to be prepared to student-teach when often times that is their first time stepping into a classroom is beyond me.

TA, at 8:50 am EDT on September 19, 2006

A complete overhaul?

If the United States is serious about teacher training they will (a) make it a five year program as suggested, and (b) make it fully affordable. The top students will not pay for five years of undergraduate education to end up with a low-paying job — or at least, very few will.

Next, in-classroom experiences need to be built into the sophomore year — future teachers should not be admitted to a program without a semester of interning.

And, teacher training must be “less colonial.” More “true” alternative certification programs are needed that convert “disadvantaged district” para-pros into trained, certified teachers. This is a far superior use of money to wasting it on dilletante programs like Teach for America that give our highest needs schools our least trained, least appropriate teachers.

But in the end the biggest need is often a radical faculty makeover. The report is correct, so few University faculty know anything about real education today, and almost none of them know what faces the majority of K-12 graduates when they leave school, that the “training” in teacher education — no matter how well meaning, is both useless and perpetuates social reproduction.

Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 10:25 am EDT on September 19, 2006

Professor Socol’s critique in his last paragraph of university teacher education programs certainly does not characterize the consistently top-ranked program at his own institution.

A. G. Rud, Purdue University, at 11:05 am EDT on September 19, 2006

Five Year Plans

It is my understanding that the Pennsylvania Department of Education mandates that all education programs can be finished in four years, period. Apparently one can takelonger if one wishes, but the four year requirement is sacrosanct.

John Slimick, at 11:50 am EDT on September 19, 2006

I have one thing to say what we need to do is cater the level of education to the grades taught. Why does a KINDERGARDEN teacher if not involved in SPecial Education need a bachelors an associates degree could suffice for grades K-5, bachelors for higher grades or enhanced ceritification with an associates degree in many cases. Or what about apprenticing teachers they earn an associates or a bachelors degree then they spend up to five years learning teaching pay slowly going up until they are proper teachers.

But right now the problem is over education when its not necessary and too much theory over practical work experience in the field.

Some things cannot fix this however I feel the PARENTS are responsible for their childrens education and the schools assist in that. Unless parents take charge and educate their children with schools dropping extra areas not related directly to teaching such as being social service agencies to them. The system cannot work. Proof of that is our children score consistantly worst than countries spending LESS on education, but get better results.

TomK, at 4:35 am EDT on September 20, 2006

Education Major

There is a huge difference between knowing something and knowing how to teach something. Teachers (for example, science teachers) should major in science education and get the degree and the credential in four years. Where else will they learn about inquiry, misconceptions, constructivism, discovery, demonstrations, how to write good test questions, classroom management, educational technology, etc. except if their professors of science education use those strategies with them? If this is accomplished, then the phrase, “You teach the way you were taught” would not be a bad thing. I got a physics degree and never once saw a demonstration, no projects, no research, no practical applications, labs disconnected from the class were taught by grad students. It was 100% lecture and multiple choice testing. I loved science and hated all of my science classes. I became a science teacher because I knew I could do better than that. My professors should have been an example to me of what good teaching should look like. They were the opposite. It’s not necessarily their fault. They were teaching the way they were taught. Until the universities change, we will continue to lecture students to death.There are universities that set good examples, but there are more that are not.

Mike, Ed Major, at 4:35 am EDT on September 20, 2006

Critique of Teacher Ed

We’re looking at the wrong data. If we were to pay teachers comparable to what we pay doctors of medicine, we would attract students from the higher SATs. We have lots of press about keeping teachers’ salaries in check, but very little press about keeping the remuneration of doctors and lawyers within some sort of reason.

If we would pay enough to attract the kind of talent that med schools and law schools attract, we’d have the best education system in the universe.

Robert Bruce, Retired, at 12:45 pm EDT on September 20, 2006

Educating teachers

Teacher education —

Make no mistake: NCLB has been a joke to the States (including mine) where the phrase “well-qualified teacher” gets manipulated to fit the current state environment, at least in the midwest: 1) low-paying jobs for teachers; 2) “scripting” in the major cities for both new teachers and some veterans, 3) lack of decent jobs for many newly licensed teachers — esp. if the new teacher isn’t willing to start at the bottom payscale typical for 22 year olds. One gets what one pays for.

Many teacher training programs need an overhaul, but the real bottom line is both pay and respect for teachers. If a district and/or the state is unwilling to raise taxes to pay for quality teachers — and actually employ the measures in existence to insure that new hires and old hands really really qualify, the all this fuss has been for naught.

John V. Knapp, Professor of English at State University training teachers, among otrher things, at 2:55 pm EDT on September 22, 2006

“Merit Pay”

It has been suggested in this discussion that University education programs be funded through a “merit pay” system. This introduces the (same old) problem of penalizing teachers who want to teach in struggling schools or districts. If teacher pay, or university funding, is directly affected by student performance, how do we control for the different levels students are at when we get there? The last thing we want to do is discourage future teachers from working in the schools that need them most. I must also agree with the teacher who said that anyone who has taught knows the feeling of being unprepared for the classroom- you just can’t know what it is going to be like until you get there- even the best programs cannot totally recreate the teaching experience. Teaching, as with all professions, has a learning curve. The real goal is to keep teachers in the profession long enough to begin to experience true success.

Erin, Intern Teacher, at 4:35 am EDT on September 27, 2006

As a student in a 5-year program, I can say that I believe Wright State has a lot of the right ingredients to ensure that student are prepared to face the classroom. In my undergrad program, our professors used best practices, innovative and effective means to teach us concepts, modelling teaching methods for us to us with our own classrooms. During the undergrad program, I completed 240 hours of classroom observation! Throughout the Aug.-Aug. grad program, I will complete 700-800 more hours in the classroom, including an entire quarter of lead teaching. With an undergrad degree in my content area, including education classes in the areas of special needs and inclusive classrooms, teaching diverse students, and educational psychology, and with a graduate degree in education, including an action resesarch project, I believe I’ll be as well prepared as a first-year teacher can be. Yes, teachers improve with experience, as in every profession. However, we have to look at the reality of this great preparedness.

At this school, these 5 years will cost a minimum of $48,000 in tuition/fees only—no living expenses. Most of that cost is funded through loans.

New teachers in Ohio may expect to start at $28,000-30,000. The College Board provided a chart based on 2003 data, entitled “How does my level of education affect my future salary?” New teachers will make salaries comparable to “High School Graduates,” while repaying $300-600/month in student loans. They will be highly treained professionals that often become pet scapegoats for politicians and parents; yet they will bravely face the next generation of America’s leaders daily, with devotion, preparation, and fortitude. They don’t teach for the pay, thankfully; they teach for the mission.

Surely, there are alternative teacher preparation programs that could place student teachers in schools with pay while learning from professionals in the field. Alternatives are needed to reduce the massive debts that teachers incur while participating in such quality 5-year programs.

Lori, Student in M.Ed. program at Wright State University, at 9:10 am EDT on September 27, 2006

Teacher Training

When I came out of my graduate program and into the classroom, I understood that I was not fully prepared to teach. No one can learn everything they need to know, and be able to do, in the classroom. You just can’t, and it is unrealistic to think you can.

I learned to teach by teaching.

That being said, the fact is that we still lose 1 in 5 teachers in their first five years. That level of attrition represents a huge waste of money on training and retraining.

The real need in the system, and it is a crying need, is to continue to train, improve and grow the teaching force by working much more intensively with young teachers to make them better. Right now, we throw the young in the classroom, they often have the worst posssible assignments, and we tell them “good luck, kid". They flounder. Well, “duh???".

We need to take the same approach with teachers that we do with students. Each one has potential, each one can learn, each one can fully realize their human possibility given time, energy and attention.

The thing is though: it costs money. And like everything in education, the system is set up more by the limits in its resources than it is by the notion of excellence. If we wanted excellence, and we had the resources, we could produce it...

Peter Henry, at 12:25 pm EDT on September 27, 2006

Teacher Education

I came from twenty years of business to education and thought the teacher education program was a joke. I would not want my medical professional educated with the same standards. I think most of the professors I had thought teaching was really just on the job training anyway. I think in the two years I was in the program I had to write my philosophy of education four times!

I would probably be even more radical than Levine’s report: I’d suggest that after four years of college, prospective teachers have to earn a living doing something outside of the educational system for four years, then go through a credentially program. One of the biggest disconnects I see between teachers and students is the teacher’s inability to understand how someone learns something. If you stay in school for sixteen years, you’ve assimilated the process of learning, and the very thing that made you successful as a student might stand between you and being a good educator.

A good way to rediscover the process of learning is being put up against something you’ve never done before, a task you have to learn to perform if you’re going to eat.

One of the things that is keeping the American educational system from reforming is that we are in denial about somethings. We don’t want to say unkind things about a group of people who seem to be waging a very difficult battle. In part, though, it is primarily a battle, I think, because we have enlisted a body of teachers and teacher educators who have stopped learning, stopped the process in themselves of actively building knowledge, of searching for meaning, seeking ideas. Giving that, when these teachers are tossed in with a bunch of urban children, they fall back on being guards at the prison.

I’m glad to see this report. I hope the people funding the state schools will read it. The place to begin the kind of reformation that embodies seeking candidates who want to share, not information or even skills so much, as the process of learning, the joy of learning, is with the teacher education programs.When I became and teacher and was sharing my experiences with friends of mine, one friend say, “Even back in college, though, the people who were going to be teachers were the dull bulbs.” There were, and they are, and our children deserve better, and we need better if we are going to educate the people who will solve the very significant problems that our modern world has.

Michael New, 6th Grade Teacher at Vallejo Middle School, at 7:40 pm EDT on September 28, 2006

teacher education

Levine is right on a lot of issues. He never disputes the fact that some programs are good. NCATE’s response that some of the best programs are accredited by them is not a serious criticism. He is talking about minimums that are absent, and NCATE’s whole combination of outcomes assessment on the honor system appears designed to create the illusion of rigor.

I am not sure about his solutions however. I can’t see that housing ed programs in research universities will necessarily make that much difference. And in the NY area the worst offenders are not public colleges, but small private ones that are little more than diploma mills.

My solution: structural program standards regarding faculty-student ratios, program staffing profiles, types of experiences on or off campus, and admissions criteria and graduation criteria. Essentially, use the well-tried standards of professional programs such as Speech Pathology and Clinical Psych.

Michael Newman, Associate Professor at Queens College/CUNY, at 9:55 am EDT on September 29, 2006