The Hechinger Report out of Teachers College at Columbia University writes that a new report shows many teacher preparation programs in the U.S. have poor quality.

Lead researcher for the new study on math teacher preparation is William Schmidt, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. He says:

“Our very worst programs produce over half of middle school teachers.”

He goes on to point out the worst-prepared teachers generally wind up in the schools where strong teachers are most badly needed.

So, consider this: when critics raise important issues about the Common Core State Standards, a commonly heard excuse is that our teachers have the training to fix standards shortcomings with curriculum. However, if Schmidt is right, more than half our teachers might not be up to speed. If so, the Common Core excuse that we can rely on curriculum to fix shortcomings obviously collapses, especially so for our neediest kids.