Professors' Attitudes Out of Sync, Study Finds

By Ann Bradley

Professors of education hold an idealistic view of public education that differs so markedly from the concerns of parents, taxpayers, teachers, and students that it amounts to "a kind of rarefied blindness," a report released last week says.

"Different Drummers: How Teachers of Teachers View Public Education" presents the results of a poll of education professors by Public Agenda. The nonprofit opinion-research organization, based in New York City, has conducted a series of studies on attitudes toward the public schools.

The disconnect between what education professors believe and the concerns expressed by parents, teachers, and students is "often staggering," the survey found. The study paints a picture of a professoriate preparing teachers for an idealized world that prizes "learning how to learn" but disdains mastery of a core body of knowledge and gives short shrift to fundamentals...