Critics Claim Missteps On Execution of Title II

By Julie Blair

Washington

A law crafted to make the nation's teacher-preparation and -licensure systems more accountable to the public ultimately falls far short of that goal and perpetuates misinformation in the process, critics assert.

The 4-year-old provision requiring teacher-training programs and states to submit report cards offered a momentous opportunity to improve the quality of the teaching workforce—an opportunity, argue many in the education community, that has been squandered. They go so far as to charge that the information provided is virtually meaningless, and that a Department of Education analysis of it condemning traditional teacher-preparation programs is unfair.

"I have rarely seen such a high level of anger," said Arthur E. Wise, the president of the Washington-based National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, an organization that currently accredits 525 teacher-training institutions. "It is not true that ... colleges of...