U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thinks graduate teaching schools are in need of serious reform.
This need was the focus of Duncan’s speech at Columbia Teachers College Thursday morning to an audience that included New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner. He laid out the challenges facing the field of education and his vision for systematic improvement with national funds.
Duncan opened with praise for Teachers College, but explained that many of the country’s education schools “are doing a mediocre job preparing teachers for the 21st-century classroom.”
With high school diplomas now essential to job hunting and college degrees growing in importance, Duncan argued that more must be done to help students of all races and abilities graduate on time. In addition, he said, with the baby boomer generation nearing retirement, the need for qualified teachers—one million by 2014, according to the Department of Education—is increasing.
“It is important to emphasize that the challenge to our schools is not just a looming teacher shortage, but rather a shortage of great teachers in the schools and communities where they are needed most,” Duncan said.
But studies, including one conducted in 2006 by former Teachers College President Arthur Levine, have shown that many graduates of education schools lack management and data skills upon entering the workforce.
“America’s university-based teacher preparation programs need revolutionary change, not evolutionary tinkering,” Duncan said.
He called upon universities to stop diverting funds from education programs to other, under-enrolled programs at the expense of education research, which has historically not reached definitive conclusions about what works in the classroom.
According to Duncan, this change is necessary because graduate schools have so much influence. The majority of teachers are now trained at education schools, yet most states do not have a way to determine which programs are producing effective teachers.
“We should be studying and copying the practices of effective teacher preparation programs, and encouraging the lowest performers to shape up or shut down,” Duncan said.
Teachers College, he added, is actually an exception, since it has set an example for other programs through its focus on hands-on training and research.
In answering audience questions on how to improve reading skills, help African-American males, and recruit teachers, Duncan emphasized that schools must reward what works, including duplicated programs or increased salaries for effective teachers.
Lucius Von Joo, TC ’11, who attended the event, expressed concern about how this success could be measured. “One of my concerns was that he opened with Levine’s study, and he really said that there was no clear data, and then he said that the department wants to put resources and money behind programs that work, but we don’t know what those programs are,” Von Joo said.
Farnaz Mohiuddin, TC ’11, said Duncan’s speech hit close to home. “It’s a bit controversial to talk about the reality of ed school, that they don’t get the respect they should, but also that some out there are diploma mills that tarnish the reputations of all ed schools,” Mohiuddin said. “It’s good that he’s making this public, because those programs not up to par should be reformed.”
City Council member Robert Jackson, who represents West Harlem and chairs the City Council education committee, attended the speech but expressed in an interview after the event his concerns over serious budget cuts. “I think it all sounds really good, looking at lots of programs that work and mirroring them,” Jackson said. “But with the state cutting $5 billion, and education being one of the two top spending items, I’m waiting to see how this is going to affect the budget in New York City, how the city is going to cope with that.”
But during his speech, Duncan expressed confidence, saying, “We’ve got $10 billion here, people.”
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy