Schools of Education Are Relics of the Past
No link in the education chain is intellectually weaker--or institutionally more tenacious--than teacher education. Originally designed to make American schools more robust, over the years it has earned a reputation for lack of rigor and irrelevance without equal in the rest of the academy. Doubters need only ask teachers. Almost without exception, they disparage such training and report that “real” teacher education takes place in the trenches. Lucky ones turn to seasoned, senior teachers for moral support and pedagogical guidance. That’s how they learn to teach.
Yet teacher education hangs on, little changed over the past half-century. Almost devoid of content, it repels most intellectually ambitious students; and those young people who are determined to become teachers suffer through education courses because they must. Teacher education has become a gatekeeper in reverse, dissuading many from going into teaching at all and frustrating most of those that do. It is a high price to pay, both for prospective teachers and the nation as a whole.
To be sure, there are exceptions that prove the rule: for example, Stanford, Hopkins, Michigan, Chicago and Harvard have fine teacher education programs, but they produce only a tiny fraction of the nation’s teachers. The teacher education mills that produce the vast majority of new teachers are the problem. Trickle-down teacher education is no more vital than trickle-down economics.
Why is teacher education so weak? It is a classic example of a “closed” system, one in which there is little or no feedback from the outside world. Once through the process, teachers heave a sigh of relief and get on with their work. Teacher educators, institutionally insulated, have been under little pressure to change or improve. Worse yet, their inertia is reinforced by state teacher licensing requirements that mirror the vapid courses they offer; to complete this dismal picture, teacher salaries are tied to credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree. Teachers actually get paid more if they take more courses.
Happily, this dismal picture may be in for a big change. Last week, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future weighed in with a thoughtful report. Chaired by North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, its membership is a Who’s Who of the education establishment, including Keith Geiger, outgoing head of the National Education Assn., and Al Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Yet credit must be given where due. The commission faces up to the woeful inadequacies of most schools of education and urges that they “meet professional standards or be closed.” The commission even argues that professional development should use a medical model, with a yearlong internship, and be built on the basis of explicit standards for teachers and students.
Most important, it proposes that the standards being developed by the private, nonprofit National Board for Professional Teaching Standards become the national benchmark for professional teaching. It is hoped that teacher “boards” will do for the education profession what medical boards do for doctors: recognize high levels of accomplishment, serving both as a beacon and symbol of mastery.
The evidence marshaled by the commission is sobering: Nearly a quarter of high school teachers do not have even a minor in their teaching field; 56% of high school students taking physical science are taught by out-of-field teachers, as are 27% of math students and 21% of English students. Not surprisingly, the commission goes on to argue that content matters, citing Will Rogers: “You can’t teach what you don’t know any more than you can come back from where you ain’t been.”
Most telling is the assertion that every year, 50,000 unqualified “teachers” are hired using emergency or substandard licenses. Thankfully, the idea that it’s all right to hire unqualified ringers when there’s a shortage of qualified professionals hasn’t caught on among brain surgeons and commercial airline pilots. Only in education.
The hard truth is that in most schools, teaching is more nearly blue than white collar work. Of 13 premier occupations, beginning with doctors and lawyers and including engineers, scientists, accountants and auditors, writers and artists, sales representatives and social workers, private sector executives and managers--even nurses--teachers rank 13th in income.
You don’t have to be an economist to know that you can’t bid up salaries and increase professional prestige if vacancies can be filled with warm bodies. Guilds were formed in the Middle Ages to control supply and command higher prices. What’s surprising is that it has taken American teachers so long to get the message.
Whether the ambitious and long overdue report of the commission bears fruit remains to be seen. But at least the members are moving in the right direction, because they are beginning to understand Luke’s admonition: Physician, heal thyself.
