Education Professors vs. Education

A recent study by Steve Farkas and Ann Duffett should strike fear into the parents of students across America.

This new study, entitled “Cracks in the Ivory Tower?: The Views of Education Professors Circa 2010,” takes an in-depth look at how today’s education professors view their role in society and in preparing the future teachers of our nation’s children.  The results are distressing.  Observe this nugget from the study’s key findings:

Asked to choose between two competing philosophies of the role of teacher educator, 68 percent believe preparing students “to be change agents who will reshape education by bringing new ideas and approaches to the public schools” is most important; just 26 percent advocate preparing students “to work effectively within the realities of today’s public schools.”

It would appear as though the people teaching tomorrow’s teachers believe that it is more important for future teachers to be “agents of change” than to be “effective” teachers within “the realities of today’s public schools.”  As if that isn’t enough, the study also found the following:

The vast majority of education professors (83 percent) believe it is absolutely essential for public school teachers to teach 21st century skills, but just 36 percent say the same about teaching math facts, and 44 percent about teaching phonics in the younger grades.

You read that correctly: only about a third of the professors teaching our children’s future teachers think teaching math facts is essential.  And less than half view teaching phonics to younger children as essential.  Meanwhile, 83% view “21^st century skills” as essential.  Those skills are defined in the study as “critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and global awareness.”

Yes: “global awareness” and “collaboration” are apparently viewed as being more important than math and reading.

Meanwhile, the study points out that “Just 37 percent say it is ‘absolutely essential’ to focus on developing ‘teachers who maintain discipline and order in the classroom.’”  This is despite the fact that discipline in the classroom and student management is, as Jay Mathews at the Washington Post calls it, “the hottest topic among young teachers.”

In case we were wondering why our public schools so often perform so dismally, we may have found our answer.

Allie Duzett is the Director of Strategic Operations for Accuracy in Media, Accuracy in Academia’s big sister group.

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