Editorial: Who’s failing? The teachers?

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

T here is a tendency to fault students when they achieve poor results on standardized tests. A report released this week, however, suggests that the principal problem rests with teachers who lack education in their specialties and who never received proper training in how to lead a classroom.

The report, produced from a four-year study, was authored by Arthur Levine, formerly of Columbia University where he was the president of Teachers College. It was part of the Education Schools Project, a Washington-based initiative focusing on schools that is funded by several foundations.

In general, Levine is highly critical of teacher colleges. Contrary to what one would assume, he says most admission standards are low and that faculty members in many cases are uninspired. Teacher colleges do not offer enough practical education in classrooms and the experience students do receive is not adequately critiqued, he wrote.

Also, he found, there is no standard for teacher colleges in the country. What students are taught varies from state to state, from college to college. Levine said his candid criticisms were not intended to give teacher colleges a bad name, but rather to spark changes that will ultimately help the nation's students get more out of their public education.

One recommendation he made was for teacher colleges to expand their programs to five years, with four years of instruction in the students' specialty and one year devoted to classroom training. He also suggested that many smaller schools drop their education programs completely. That may be impractical, as tuitions at the larger schools with better reputations are too high for many whose salaries would begin at around $30,000.

We agree with Sharon Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, who agreed with Levine that improvements are badly needed.

"We should not abandon the schools that produce the highest number of teachers," she said. "Rather, we should focus on them.''