Education Study Raps Teacher Colleges for Mushy Thinking

Teacher unions aren't the only subversive elements to education reform and accountability. Teacher colleges appear to be co-conspirators, a new report says.

"Cracks in the Ivory Tower," released today by the Thomas Fordham Institute, reports in its survey of 738 teacher-educators at four-year universities and colleges:

• More than 80 percent of education professors think it's "absolutely essential" that teachers be lifelong learners, but just 24 percent believe it's as necessary for teachers to understand how to work with state standards, tests and accountability systems.
• Education professors are far more likely to believe that the proper role of a teacher is to be a "facilitator of learning" (84 percent) than a "conveyor of knowledge" (11 percent).
• While 83 percent believe it's "absolutely essential" to teach 21st century skills, just 36 percent say that about teaching math facts and 44 about teaching phonics in the younger grades.

Read the full report here.