No wonder our teachers have problems – Look at the holes in their Ed School programs!
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has never been reluctant to take on issues that impair good teaching, and the group may have reached a new peak in candor with their recently released report, “A Fair Chance, Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce.”
I’m still going through this stunningly direct and disturbing challenge regarding the quality of US education schools, but some facts are too dramatic to delay commenting.
Page 3 of the NCTQ’s report summarizes some key findings for education schools across the nation:
While most programs require teacher candidates to take a course in composition and writing, they seldom require a germane literature course. Notably, only half require an aligned children’s literature course.
Only one in four programs covers the breadth of mathematics content necessary for elementary grades.
One in three programs does not require a history or geography course aligned with the needs of elementary teachers.
Two in three programs do not require a single science course that could be considered aligned.
But, what really got my attention was the detailed breakout of the massive amount of what is missing in specific undergraduate education school programs in some of Kentucky’s colleges and universities.
If you want to see how Kentucky’s Ed schools were rated by NCTQ, click the “Read more” link.
The coverage of what the NCTQ considers required subject material for elementary education programs is summarized in
of the report. The table below, extracted from information on Pages 9 and 10 in Appendix A, tells the story for a number of elementary school level teacher preparation programs in Kentucky.
According to the report, where an open circle appears, that important area of teacher preparation lacks proper coverage at the listed university.
The dearth of coverage in some areas is particularly troubling.
The many holes in elementary mathematics coverage are simply astonishing. The NCTM says only three of the 17 listed schools cover math adequately – that’s just 18 percent! This is probably a major reason why Kentucky’s math performance continues to be highly problematic on assessments like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). You can’t teach math well if you don’t know it, and don’t really know how to teach it.
The coverage of geography is also pretty disappointing. Only six college programs offer course work or require pretest competency in this area. That might help explain why the proposed revision to Kentucky’s social studies standards are disappointing in the geography area, as well. In fact, it seems some of our teachers might not really understand what geography is.
To be sure, I don’t see how we can expect our elementary teachers to do a good job of teaching science when the coverage of the core areas of biology, chemistry and physics are all pretty weak, with the number of Ed schools covering chemistry being the worst of all.
It also looks like both American and World Literature are mostly ignored.
For the history areas, where a black circle appears, there is a course or pretest requirement for subject coverage. However, the notation numbers can still indicate that coverage might be minimal.
One area of universal coverage is composition. But, with everything else from history to geography to math and the sciences getting short shrift, exactly what will our kids be writing about?
To be fair, I suspect that some of the Kentucky Ed schools in the listing above would differ with the findings in the NCTM report. I’d like to hear their side of the story, too.
In fact, I think our Interim Joint Education Committee needs to hear the full story.
If the NCTM is generally right, we have a major problem with the education schools in Kentucky. That probably would help explain why, after almost three decades of KERA education reforms, only 40 percent of all our students score proficient or more on the Grade 4 NAEP math assessment while just 15 percent of our black students do so (Source:
Web Tool).So, to reiterate, it’s time for our legislators to take a look at this, hearing from both sides of the discussion. Our kids deserve no less.