A top education research group blared a warning Tuesday for the Graduate School of Education and Human Development: Aspiring teachers are entering classrooms vastly unprepared.
The school’s teacher-training programs ranked among the worst in the country, earning zero out of four stars from the D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality. It fell in with 14 percent of schools surveyed that were issued “consumer alerts” for particularly dismal programs, alerting students to study elsewhere.
The stinging review, the first of its kind, reported that the vast majority of programs were mediocre, blasting low admissions standards and little real world experience before landing a full-time gig.
GSEHD Dean Michael Feuer said GW did not participate in the study, the Washington Post reported, which means that reviewers obtained syllabi and other course materials unofficially. Feuer declined to answer questions via email, but said he would respond to the review in a formal interview with The Hatchet.
Funded by 62 organizations, the review also analyzed admissions standards, textbooks and course requirements.
In a blog post published Tuesday afternoon, Feuer wrote that rating the quality of a program should consider more than just written materials, as they are “not necessarily an accurate reflection of what is taught in teacher preparation programs.”
He added that only 10 percent of the schools provided the NCTQ with the requested materials. Feuer said GSEHD could not use the review to improve its program until they determined how the materials that were considered were obtained.
“We chose to not participate in the project, largely because we were uncertain about whether the methodology was attuned to the subtle differences between teacher preparation at the undergraduate and graduate levels,” he wrote.
Only four programs in the nation received a four-star ranking in secondary education: Vanderbilt, Lipscomb , Ohio State and Furman universities.
GSEHD has received high rankings from U.S. News and World Report, ranking seventh in online education programs this year. The school has also helped review the shaky D.C. Public Schools system, sending students into classrooms around the city.
