Teacher training is branded 'Dodge City' Educators take issue with report describing process as 'chaotic' Tuesday, September 19, 2006 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff As New Jersey looks at how to better train public school teachers, a report rips into teacher education programs nationwide and calls them disconnected to the needs of educators. The report by Arthur Levine, former president of Columbia University's Teachers College, called most college education programs the equivalent of the Wild West. "Teacher education right now is the Dodge City of education, unruly and chaotic," Levine said yesterday. "There is a chasm between what goes on in the university and what goes on in the classroom." The report cites graduates' and principals' own impressions. For instance, only a third of the administrators thought their new hires were well-prepared to manage a classroom, deal with students with disabilities or teach those with limited English skills, according to surveys in the report. The report comes at a time of national angst over the state of public schools and student achievement, with teachers often taking the brunt of the criticism. In New Jersey, a task force was formed earlier this year to review how the state's nearly 30 colleges and universities can improve the training of future teachers. Yesterday, state and college officials took issue with some of Levine's criticisms and recommendations in the report, but they conceded that changes are needed to bring tougher and more uniform standards to all schools. "It clearly is a mixed bag in terms of quality," acting Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said of teacher programs in the state. "We do need to hold schools more accountable for measuring how their graduates do once (they are) in the classroom." Here and elsewhere, the debate over teacher education has gone on for decades, with even Levine conceding that few of his ideas are new. For instance, New Jersey was a pioneer in the 1980s in creating the "alternate route" system that allows individuals to teach without traditional teacher training, a pipeline that now provides about 40 percent of all new teachers in the state. The argument often has pitted those who say teachers must have more knowledge of what they teach against those maintaining that the skills of teaching are paramount. Lately, new requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind law have pushed the argument toward teachers having more content knowledge. Rather than taking sides in that philosophical debate, Levine gives an insider's view of education schools beset by low standards for admission and graduation, varied curricula and an image within their own institutions as being mostly revenue-generators. "They are treated as cash cows, taking more students than they should into programs staffed by part-time faculty," he said. "We need to change them from ivory towers to professional schools that focus on classroom practices." Levine, writing for the Washington-based nonprofit Education Schools Project and funded by several prominent foundations, makes five recommendations for colleges and states to improve. Included is a suggestion to transform teacher education into a five-year program that allows for concentration on the subject to be taught and more classroom experience. He said the programs need to be more like professional schools with consistent standards. "Just as medical schools are rooted in hospitals and law schools focus on the courts, the work of education schools should be grounded in the schools," wrote Levine, now president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton. Levine took pains not to criticize all programs, saying that probably a quarter are good to excellent. Among his models were Stanford University and the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, both examples of large research universities that can provide the necessary resources. But he said the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the nation's primary stamp of approval for education programs, provides little guarantee of that quality. State and college officials yesterday were most critical of Levine's disapproval of the council and his argument that more selective doctorate-granting schools do better than less comprehensive ones. New Jersey will require a national accreditation of all college and university programs by 2009, and the bulk of its teacher candidates come out of the smaller programs. Some said pressing for more selective programs will close the door to many qualified candidates. "His recommendation that students be produced by the more elite institutions is just not realistic," said Ada Beth Cutler, dean of the education school at Montclair State University and chairwoman of the new state task force. She and others also said the teacher accreditation process provides a valuable experience and evaluation for programs, including the kind of survey of graduates' classroom successes that Levine calls for. The national council yesterday released a statement pointing out that Levine's own Teachers College won the organization's accreditation in 2005. Still, several local school officials who hire hundreds of teachers each year agreed yesterday that programs could improve in preparing graduates for the real life of the classroom. But they also pointed out the financial impact of any increase in standards, especially at a time when schools are told to hold the line on spending. "There is such a burden right now in communities' ability to fund education," said Robert Copeland, superintendent of Piscataway schools. "At the same time, there are fewer and fewer candidates coming through, and only more competition for them." © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.