Most aspiring teachers emerge from college woefully unprepared for their jobs, but the teacher training program at Emporia State University is an exception to that rule, according to a new study by the former president of Teachers College at Columbia University.
The report, released Monday by the Education Schools Project, comes as public schools are under federal orders to have a qualified teacher for every class. It casts doubts on the most basic aspects of how teachers are taught.
And while it suggests coursework in teacher education programs is in disarray nationwide, the report heaps accolades on the program at Emporia State University’s Teachers College.
“Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world,” said Arthur Levine, the report’s author. “Like the fabled Wild West town, it is unruly and chaotic. There is no standard approach to where and how teachers should be prepared.”
Teacher quality has a huge influence on whether students pass or fail, the report said. Unlike other professions such as law and medicine, there is no common length of study or set of required skills.
According to the report, ESU’s program — as well as programs at the University of Virginia, Stanford University in California and Alverno College in Milwaukee — could offer a model.
The Kansas university’s 150 years of experience and the relationship its program has with area school districts helped it earn that recognition, said Tes Mehring, associate dean of the Teachers College.
But Mehring said the report’s criticism might have been too sweeping. Many more teacher colleges may be doing a better job than the report recognizes, she said, since the study began five years ago.
“I think questions have to be raised about the study methodology and the generalizations being raised,” she said.
The report includes survey data as well as case studies at 28 schools of education. It was financed by the Ewing Marion Kauffman, Annenberg, Ford and Wallace foundations.
Many of the school principals surveyed said college-trained teachers didn’t know how to integrate technology into their teaching or how to address the needs of students with disabilities, limited English and diverse cultural backgrounds.
But in recent years, school administrators have modified their teacher-training methods to help graduates connect with more ethnically, culturally and economically diverse student populations, said Steve LaNasa, associate dean at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Education.
Matt Kunstman, 26, of Gardner said he worked in classrooms beginning in his sophomore year at ESU. He now teaches at Pioneer Trail Junior High School in Olathe, where he also did his student teaching.
“I felt ready to step right in after I graduated,” Kunstman said. “You have to want to help these kids. If you don’t, you are going to struggle.”