Teachers & Teacher Preparation

Disconnected and Unaccountable Teacher Training is at the Heart of Schooling Failure

Evidence from the few states where such data is collected indicates that many elementary and secondary school students fail to make adequate progress because they too frequently encounter ineffective teachers, i.e., teachers whose students’ achievement growth is significantly less than one year of achievement gain per school year. Part of the problem is that many school districts are only now beginning to systematically monitor or address the problem of ineffective teaching. They often lack both the teacher performance data and the will to insist on improvement.

The larger problem, however, is that the preservice training given teachers is often inadequate, and in some cases, detrimental.   Teaching practices founded on theory and craft knowledge, not experimental evidence, are typical fare.  Worse, proven practices that are contrary to favored theory may be denigrated as boring or emotionally damaging. Direct Instruction is a prime example.

Inservice professional development can be equally problematic.  Teaching innovations that are as little tested as the practices they replace are commonly touted as breakthroughs in pedagogy.  The educational fads that have become an unfortunate hallmark of public schooling often originate in schools of education.

Teacher preparation programs are most often housed in colleges of education and, like other professional training programs, they are accountable only for meeting the broad standards set by accrediting bodies and professional societies.  With the exception of a few states, however, they are not accountable for the effectiveness of the practices taught to their graduates.  Only recently have states begun to report on the effectiveness of teachers by school district and on the linkage between the effectiveness of new teachers and their training.

In summary, teacher education has long promoted a pedagogical idealism disconnected from classroom realities and excused the deficient results by pointing to social and economic factors beyond its control.  In the nineteen sixties, schooling failure was blamed on poverty.  Today, teacher educators identify a lack of diversity, inclusion and social justice in schools and communities as a as the root cause of deficient and inequitable outcomes. Again, they find the causes of schooling failure to be something other than their often faddish and poorly tested practices.

In truth, the complete eradication of all social and economic ills would not materially improve schooling outcomes without a change in the teaching practices taught to teachers.  Conversely, a change to research-based, data-driven teaching practices would go a very long way to improving school outcomes and alleviating the social and economic ills that otherwise result.