Learning to teach

It’s said that the most important step toward solving a problem — and the hardest one to take — is to recognize that the problem exists. Analysts, as well as parents of school-age children and former students, generally agree that our nation’s children could, and should, get better classroom instruction.

Unfortunately, those charged with preparing teachers for the classroom seem to deny that improvement is needed; at least, they don’t seem willing to accept evaluations that can lead to suggestions for improvement.

The National Council on Teacher Quality has issued a preliminary report that suggests Texas universities could do a better job of training teachers.

The report is preliminary because the council is giving the schools more time to respond to requests for information about their education programs. Most universities didn’t bother to respond.

As a result, the NCTQ worked to get the information the best it could, by going to the Web sites of the 67 collegiate education programs in the state, among other sources. The group reviewed admission standards, course requirements, quality of faculty and other factors.

After not helping the group gather its information, several university officials criticized the report. The Texas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education already is preparing a written response condemning it. Charles Ruch, interim dean of Texas Tech University’s College of Education, told The Associated Press that he cares more about meeting state accreditation standards.

But even those standards also are getting a hard look. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said that college education programs need to do a better job of teaching their students how to teach once they’re in the classroom. The Texas Legislature this year passed a resolution calling for more accountability among the state’s teacher training programs, noting that the teachers coming out of those programs don’t necessarily lead to high student performance in the classroom.

After all, that’s what being a teacher is all about, isn’t it?

Apparently, it depends on whom you ask. Teachers’ unions and associations, in Texas and elsewhere, are notorious for protecting their members, regardless of job performance. School districts across the country report that the process for dismissing teachers, no matter how badly they do their jobs, is lengthy, difficult and often costly because of almost automatic legal challenges.

Shouldn’t these organizations prefer to be known for promoting and maintaining the highest quality of teachers among their ranks. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case; they apparently place job and benefits retention ahead of giving our children the best education they can.

It doesn’t take the NCTQ to tell us that our teachers are lacking in that area. Despite the generally universal access to free education, costing taxpayers more than $10,000 per student, U.S. students have long been outperformed by their peers in several other countries in standardized testing and other measures of preparation for life beyond the classroom.

Our system of teacher preparation obviously can improve. But that iwon't happen if those in charge of that preparation reject outright any evaluation of their performance.

Certainly, they have the ultimate word on how they design their programs. However, they should not only accept outside input, but they should welcome it and help in the evaluations.

That begins with providing the NCTQ and other groups with the information they need to make their assessments. Then they should take the results with open minds, and be willing to make changes that can make them better.

The education of our children — and the world they craft with that education — hangs in the balance. That is too important an issue to subject to the cavalier whims of educators who aren’t willing to listen to outside evaluations and suggestions.